A New Life
by KittyKatly
Summary: *This story is being edited* Aura, a girl who used to live at the modern world until one night she was kidnapped and taken away from her parents. What happens when she has to change her name and her identity to fit in the Avatar world? Will she be able to hide the secret and survive?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar The Last Airbender.**

**A New Life**

**Prologue**

A four year old girl was playing with her toys. Her mother came and picked her up from the floor. She took the toy from the girl's hand and put it on the table. She told something to the child. She walked to the bedroom and put her in bed. The mother went to a shelf on the far wall and got a picture book. She heard shuffling from the window and looked down. Nothing. She shrugged and went to her child. She started reading the story and eventually the girl went to sleep. The mother closed the light and walked out of the bedroom.

* * *

It was about midnight, everyone in the house was asleep. Three dark figures climbed in through the living room window. They walked quietly through the house. One of them accidentally knocked down a porcelain jar but another caught it in time, just before it hit the floor.

"The next time be careful." A masculine voice said in a hushed tone.

"Sorry." The other one whispered.

"Shh, we don't want to ruin this mission." A feminine voice shushed them. They nodded.

They tip-toed quietly to the little girl's room. They locked eyes. The feminine figure opened the door quietly and walked in. She looked around and signaled to the masculine figures to come in. They walked to the sleeping child. One of the masculine figure got the blanket off the child. The small child shivered. The first one carefully picked up the child and handed it over to the feminine figure.

"Why do I always have to carry the child?" She whispered.

"Because you are a woman and woman are supposed to be good with children." The male explained while whispering. She sighed and walked out of the room with the male figures behind her.

When they approached the window, the child opened her eyes. She took in the strangers' faces, wide eyed. She screamed as loud as she could. The feminine figure took out a cloth and put it on the child's mouth and nose, knocking her out. They heard foot steps approaching and muttering. They turned to the window and fled.

* * *

_Thanks for reading! I know this chapter is short but please read the next chapter before deciding that you don't want to read it. This in and OC story. And please review!_


	2. A New Life

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender. I do own Crystal/Aura, Ping, Jia and Hong.**

**Chapter One: **

**A New Life**

The girl opened her eyes and found herself in a dark room. Her vision was a bit blurry so she rubbed her eyes. She sat up and tried processing everything around her. She was in a wooden old fashioned bed, not so comfy like the one she slept in at home. A bit bumpy and hard. There were other beds like this around her with sleeping children.

"Hello child." She heard an old raspy masculine voice from beside her.

She turned around, fear shown in her eyes. The man she saw in front of her had a white beard, green eyes and wore a green robe with gold trimmings."Don't be scared everything is going to be alright. Why don't you come with me?" He offered her a hand.

She nodded, got off the bed and took his hand. The girl and the man started walking out of the huge room. When they were out of the room, the old man asked "What's your name, child?"

"Crystal." it was barely a whisper, so the old man had to lean in to hear her. "Oh, Crystal nice to meet you." The girl, no Crystal, just stared blankly at him. He sighed. They walked on.

They walked past other children of different ages, most around her age or younger. She stared at them as they walked on. She and the old man went past the line of children and stopped in front of a metal door. The man knocked. A women opened the door, and let Crystal and the man in. She had a kind smile on her face, her hair was jet black, she wore a dress similar to the one the man wore except that hers was red. The woman sat on a chair and put her hand on the table and gestured for Crystal to sit on the chair across from her.

Crystal hesitated but upon seeing the kind smile on the woman's face she obliged. "So, what's your name?" The woman asked kindly without taking off her smile.

"Crystal." She whispered.

"So, Crystal nice to meet you. My name is Ping." The woman held out her hand. Crystal just stared at her blankly.

"Um, ok, how are you feeling?"

"Good." She whispered back.

"Why don't you have a drink?" The woman stood up and poured a hot drink into a cup. She pushed the cup to Crystal's side of the table and sat back down. Crystal looked at the woman, no Ping, to the cup of hot drink. "Drink it." Ping beckoned her to drink. She hesitated, but did as she was told. As soon as she drank it, her surroundings became blurry and she felt dizzy. She fell over the chair as everything became black.

* * *

The next time, Crystal found herself in another room, she looked around and found Ping sitting on a chair. The old man was gone. She looked around, she was resting on a comfy bed with white sheets. "How are you feeling?" Ping asked as she gave her a warm smile.

"Ok." She answered.

"Alright you are going to get new parents soon." Ping said with her never wavering voice. Crystal tilted her head to the side and gave her a confused look.

"Your name is Aura from now on."

"Aura?" She repeated.

"Yes Aura and you are from the Fire Nation."

"Fire Nation?" She gave Ping a confused look.

"Yes, you'll see. You are not aloud to talk about your life in the modern world or tell your real name. If you break any of these rules you'll be severely punished. Understood?" For the first time the woman's voice became cold and her smile disappeared. Crystal cowered under her gaze but she managed to nod.

"Good!" Her cold attitude was gone replaced by a kind smile again. Ping gestured for Crystal to come. She stood and walked to her, fear clearly shown on her face. Ping opened the door, grabbed Crystal's hand and walked her to another room.

The room was richly decorated with red walls and paintings of dragons. A fireplace was on one of the walls and in front of it were plush red sofas with a small table in the middle. On the sofa was a man and a woman holding hands, they were wearing dark red robes with golden designs of flowers for the woman and a dragon for the man. The woman's black hair was made in a complicated braid on top of her head and the man had a topknot. They both had amber eyes, much like her own. Across from them sat another man and he wore similar clothing to Ping except that he wore a long shirt and pants.

Ping brought Crystal in front of the three adults, she turned to the man and woman holding hands and said with her voice strict, "She is going to be your child. Treat her as your own. Teach her the ways of our world." Ping nudged her arms and nodded her head in the man and woman's direction.

Crystal walked over to them hesitantly. The woman held out her hand and Crystal did the same. The woman smiled warmly, "What's your name?"

"Crystal."

"Uh, no your name is Aura." Ping cut in.

"No." Crystal said forcefully.

"Yes." Ping gave her a hard look.

"It's alright we'll work on it." The woman interrupted. "My name is my name is Jia and this is Hong." Jia gestured to the man beside her. "And we are going to be your new parents."

"I want my own parents." Crystal said a bit forcefully.

"That won't be possible."

"Why not?"

"Because..." Jia held out her palm in front of her and lit a small fire. Crystal screamed and stumbled backwards.

"It's alright you can do it too. Just bring your hands together." Hesitantly, Crystal did as she was told. "Good, now take a deep breath and exhale. Feel your inner fire inside your body and it should come." She took a deep breath and exhaled.

in...out...in...out...in...out...in...out

She felt something warm lighting up inside her and when she opened her eyes she saw a small flame dancing on the palm of her hands. She watched at the dancing flame in amazement. "Now you understand why you can't go back up to your world." Jia said. Crystal nodded.

Jia smiled, "Let's go to your new home, shall we?" Crystal nodded and for the first time she came to this new world, she smiled.

* * *

_Thank you very much for reading my story! This and the last chapter was supposed to be together but... Well I decided to separate it._ _Thank you so much for reading this story so far. Please review and tell me what you think about it._


	3. The First Day

**A New Life**

**Chapter 2:**

**The First Day**

Crystal was riding on a carriage with Jia and Hong along with Ping and the man. The carriage was red along with everything around her. Weird... That was pretty unusual since from where she came from everyone wore anything they liked.

The man cleared his throat, "You must be wondering who I am. I am Qiang. I or Ping will be checking up on you every week to see if you are getting used to living in the Fire Nation. There are also rules for people like you, people who come from the Other World. The rules are very strict. If you break any of them, you'll be executed."

"What does executed mean?" Crystal asked confused.

"Death." Her eyes widened and she pressed herself closer to her seat as if to get as far away from the man as possible.

"Alright, let's get on with the rules." He said. "You must not tell anyone that you are from the Other World or else you and the person you told to, will be killed. You must not bring any belongings from the Other World to this world or else it will be destroyed." Her hand immediately went to her chest where she had a locket. "You must not tell anyone your real name, if you do you'll get killed. You must stick to the story we tell you about how you ended up with them." He nodded towards Jia and Hong. "And most of all you must not utter a single word about your world. Understood?" He looked at her with a hard stare, she nodded.

Finally the carriage stopped in front of a huge house. Crystal could only stare at the beautiful mansion like house. It was red like any other houses around here. The people who live around here seemed to be rich with their expensive looking clothes, the huge houses and the nicely paved roads. It was nice to know that at least she would be living with a rich family.

They all walked out of the carriage and into the house. Hong knocked on the fancy door. A servant came and opened the door. They walked in. She stared at the richly decorated walls. There were paintings hanging on every wall. Pots of flowers could be see from the fancy side table on the hallway. There were servants walking around the house either cleaning something or getting food.

They went to the living room. There were fancy red sofas in the middle of the room and a fire place on the far wall. They sat on the sofas, Ping and Qiang sitting across from her, Jia and Hong. A couple of servants came and put tea and biscuits. Then they went out of the room.

"We should be leaving now. Give a tour of the house, teach her our ways. Good luck." Qiang said. Both Ping and him bowed and walked out of the house.

When they left the house Jia turned to face her "So first let's get a tour of the house and then you can take a bath. Then we'll have dinner together." Crystal nodded.

"As you can see this is the living room." She did an ark with her hand to show the place. "Next we'll go to the dining room." They walked into a room with a fancy dining table. Then they went to Hong's study (which was really messy). Then to their little library, their bedroom

Their firebending practice grounds, the garden, another dining room for guests, the play room (which they made for me), an extra bedroom and finally Crystal's bedroom.

"Wow." Crystal could only stare at the magnificent room. She had a huge bed a dressing table, a big walk in closet with clothes and shoes, she also got shelf with dolls on it. "Do you like it?" Jia asked from behind her.

"Yes." Crystal breathed.

"You should take a bath." Jia said. Crystal nodded. "I'll tell the servants to get your bathtub ready. After that, come downstairs and we'll have dinner."

Jia went out of the room. Crystal plopped herself on her new bed.

* * *

The first thing Crystal noticed when she entered the dining room was the food. There was chicken, vegetables, and many other things on the dining table. Seeing the delicious food made her mouth water.

Jia was already seated on the chair. Crystal sat down beside her. Hong came into the room and sat down across from them. "So, do you like it here so far?" Hong asked as he took some food from the table. Crystal nodded and did the same. This was the first time he actually spoke, he didn't sound very nice though. Beside her Jia started taking her food.

"This could be practice of how a proper lady has to eat." Jia said and took a cup of water. "You have to drink like this." She held the cup with her thumb, pointer and middle finger, with her pinkie facing strait up. Crystal did the same.  
"And you have to take small sips." Crystal did as Jia told her to.

"But why do I have to do this?" Crystal asked frustrated.

"Well that's just how it's done." Jia said. Crystal sighed. "Oh and make sure to eat healthily. And keep your posture straight." Crystal straightened her back.

They ate and when they were done, Hong took her to her bedroom (Jia forced him to). "Good night." he said as she put Crystal in bed.

"Can you tell me a story?" Crystal mumbled from underneath the blanket.

"Um, I don't know any stories."

"Please." Crystal made puppy-dog eyes at Hong. "I won't be able to sleep without a story."

Hong sighed, "Alright I'll tell you a story." Crystal beamed. "What kind of story's do you want to hear?"

"Anything."

"You have to tell me what kind of story's you want to hear!" Hong said frustrated.

"Just tell me anything." Crystal said softly.

Hong sighed, "Um, ok, so, I'll tell you about the Hundred Year War which started with the great Fire Lord Sozin." His voice rose with excitement and his arms above his head. Crystal stared.

Hong cleared his throat, "Everyone in the Fire Nation knows this story. You are supposed to learn it tomorrow but I'll just tell it to you know." Hong smiled.

"So, as I said Fire Lord Sozin started the war to spread our nation's prosperity to the world. You must be wondering what a Fire Lord is. Well a Fire Lord is the ruler of the Fire Nation, anyway, he started planning it from his earlier stages of being Fire Lord. He couldn't put his plans into action because of Avatar Roku. I should also tell you what an avatar is. An avatar is a person from any nation that can bend all the elements. It's just one person. You'll learn more tomorrow." He explained.

"So as I was saying Avatar Roku prevented him from taking over the world. So when Avatar Roku died, he found out about a comet that comes every one hundred years, later renamed Sozin's Comet. When the comet came he wiped out all the Air Nomads. You'll learn more about the other nations tomorrow. He took over part of the Earth Kingdom. He also tried looking for the next avatar but we believe that the cycle was broken. Then he died a natural death. After many years, his children and grand children took over most part of the Earth Kingdom. The war still goes on now, we are almost winning." He looked down at Crystals shocked face, smiling.

"Don't you think taking over the world is wrong? He just wants power." Crystal affirmed.

Hong grabbed her shoulder. "Don't you dare say that. I know it may be wrong but people who disagree are killed. So don't say it again. Understood?" He looked her straight in the eye. Crystal nodded.

"You should get some sleep now. Good night." Hong walked out of the room.

Crystal lit a fire in her hand and she took out her golden heart shaped locket. Her hand traced the name that was written on it. _Crystal._

She opened the small clasp and looked at a small photo of her mom and dad. She stared at the picture.

Both her parents had black hair. Her mom's hair was curlier and it was just below her shoulder. Her dad had short straight hair cut in a military style hair cut. Crystal's hair was also straight just like her dads. Her parents had brown eyes. Unlike her, she has amber eyes, just like the people in the Fire Nation. Her dad was taller than her mom. Her mom was very fashionable and she wore make-up. They both had a light brown skin color unlike her, she had a pale skin.

She can see why she was sent to this world. Everyone here seemed to have similar appearances.

They both looked very happy in the picture but in real life she knew that they didn't like each other. It was an arranged marriage. She remembered her mom and dad yelling at each other. Her dad was very selfish and he used her mom to make her do all the work at home, while he just sat on his computer, sometimes pretending to do his job. Her mom gets tired every night because of the labor but she always finds some time to spend with her. She always buys her toys, clothes and delicious food with the little money her dad lets her use.

Crystal really missed her but there's nothing to do now. She's stuck in this world. The only thing she can do is make a life here. Tears came out of her eyes. She cried saddened by the fact that she won't be able to see her mother again. This night she cried herself to sleep holding onto the locket on her heart.

* * *

**A/N:**Thanks_ for reading! I'm really sorry if this chapter was worse than the rest. I had alot of school work to finish. I'm really sorry if it sounds like I'm writing a huge essay about environmental issues and facts (that's what our class is doing, it's a big part of our literacy mark). From now on I will try to update this story every weekend. Anyways, Thanks for reading and please review. _


	4. Morning to Night

**A New Life**

**Chapter 3:**

**Morning to Night**

The next morning Crystal woke up to the rising sun. She could feel the power coursing through her body. She looked out the window, it was still really early in the morning. She felt like the power is coming from the rising sun. She felt very tired though, as if she was short on sleep.

She stretched herself and rubbed her eyes. That's when somebody knocked on the door,"Miss Aura may I come in?"

"Yes."

That somebody opened the door and it seems like that somebody was one of the servants. The servant looked like she was around her 40s, with the typical Fire Nation look. The servant smiled down at Crystal. _She seems nice_ was the thought that went through her mind.

"My name is Fen. I was assigned to get you ready for the morning." Fen bowed.

"I have a question." Crystal said waving her right arm in the air.

"Yes?"

"Do people in the Fire Nation wake up this early in the morning? 'Cause I'm still a bit sleepy." Crystal stretched and yawned.

Fen chuckled, "Well, Miss Aura, you are a fire bender and fire benders rise with the sun."

"So, I don't get to sleep in?" Crystal looked at Fen hopefully.

Fen shrugged, "Most likely not, unfortunately. You are now a daughter of a minor government official now. You have to wake up early anyway." Crystal groaned rubbing her eyes. "Now let's get you ready!"

Fen helped her wear her new dress (which was pretty different from what people wear in Crystal's world). Before Fen dressed her, Crystal hid her locket under the bed when Fen wasn't looking.

Then Fen did her hair. Fen was going to do a complicated braid on her hair but Crystal told her that she wanted something simple. She ended up having a ponytail with both of her bangs on the sides of her face. Crystal found out that the people here use ribbons instead of rubber-bands. When Crystal tried doing her hair it just fell in a loose mess so she just let Fen do it. Crystal sighed inwardly,_ this is going to be a long day._

Finally she went down to the dining room to have breakfast. "Oh my gosh! You look so cute Aura!" before she knew it Crystal was in a bear hug by Jia who seemed to come out of nowhere. "Don't you think Hong?"

Jia gestured her to spin around. Crystal wore a red dress that fell to her ankles, with a black belt that was attached to a small red ribbon on the left side of her dress and a flowery pattern on the right. Her pony tail had a ribbon with the fire emblem in the middle.

"Ah, yes, she does look very cute." Hong said from behind his long scroll. Jia snatched it away from him and rolled the scroll. Hong looked disappointed. Jia put her hands on her hip, her eyebrows arched down, making her look scary. Hong turned to Crystal. He looked impressed. He smiled, "Yes she does look cute with her new dress." Crystal grinned ear to ear.

"But you look tired."

"I had to wake up really early."

She sat down on the table beside Jia. Just like yesterday, there was a whole variety of food. She picked the bread with the jam and poured a glass of milk. After that she took a yoghurt. When they were finished eating, Hong and Jia took Crystal to the garden. There were different flowers all around the place with a small water fountain in the middle.

They went to a little clearing and stood. "Right now we will teach you the basic forms of firebending." Hong said.

"We will teach you the breathing exercises first. It is the most important in firebending because if you don't keep your breathing in check, your will loose control of your fire." Jia explained.

"That means we will be meditating. You have to focus on the sun. The sun is the main source for firebending, we draw our power from the sun. If we didn't have the sun at all we won't be able to bend." Hong said pointing at the sun. "When you meditate you have to sit like this." He sat down cross legged with both his hand on his lap, palm facing up. Crystal did the same. "Good, now now focus on the sun. Take a deep breath in and out." Hong instructed.

Crystal did as she was told. She could feel the sun's heat on her back, she focused on it. For some reason the heat didn't bother her as much as it used. Must be a fire bender thing. The sun actually calmed her down a bit and she could feel this tiny bit of power from it but it was still boring.

_15 seconds later..._

"I'm bored." Crystal grumbled.

"It's only been 15 seconds." Hong said incredulously.

"Ugh, I'm bored." Crystal rolled on the the floor.

"Get up young lady! Don't make your self dirty." Jia scowled as she put her hands on her hips.

Crystal sighed, "Ok, fine, I'll die of boredom."

"Meditate!" Hong commanded. She immediately went back to her meditative form.

* * *

It's been two hours since meditation. Hong said that she has to meditate every morning in front of a fire. But right now she was learning how to act like a proper lady. Jia told her not to let any (as if ANY) of these things slip. Right about now she was learning how to hold a fan properly, how to talk politely (which she is not that good at) and perfect posture. Well she's trying her best.

After lunch they they tried teaching her about the four nations and their cultures. Later that night she went to the family's library and looked for a small book to read. She only looked through the pictures since she couldn't read and by the end she became sleepy so she went to bed. She clutched her locket to her heart as she thought about the day and went to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: **_I am so so sooo sorry for not updating last week. My only excuse is that I forgot to. I am sooooo sorry. From now on I will try not to forget to updates please forgive me._


	5. Feelings

**A/N:**This_ chapter is mostly like a filler but I think the last part is pretty important. It's already been 3 months and also it's Aura/Crystal's birthday. I know it is short. Maybe the shortest. But I wanted to make it the way it is. So enjoy! Please R&amp;R._

* * *

**A New Life**

**Chapter 4:**

** My Feelings Here**

It's been 3 months since Crystal's first arrival at the Fire Nation. It was also her fifth birthday. She was turning five. How exiting! Her first birthday at the Fire Nation.

Hong said that she didn't have to meditate this morning. Over the course of the month she got used to meditating since at the beginning it was pretty boring to her. But now she found comfort in it. Meditating was the time for her to think of all the things that's happened to her since she came to the Fire Nation. She never thought about her life at the other world. It was too painful to think of her sweet and caring mother.

She also wasn't allowed to go out, at least that's what Ping and Qiang said. She felt the need to roll her eyes at them. Oh Qiang, how she hated that cold man. Since it's already been three months and her birthday she has the permission to go outside. Oh how she missed the taste of freedom. Now Ping and Qiang's visit won't be as frequent as it was the past three months, which she was glad for.

It was officially summer, her favorite season! When she came here it was still spring. The summer was extremely hot here. Way hotter than where she came from. The weird thing was that she liked the hotness, it was comforting.

Hong and Jia said that we were going to have a small party with cake and desserts and small games. It was pretty fun. At least the male of the family didn't act like he cared unlike Crystal's father. The gist of it all is that she had a great birthday party. She loved Hong and Jia. Over the course of the month she got used to thinking of them as mom and dad even though it still felt weird.

She has also gotten used to being called Aura and it wasn't like they were gonna let her keep her old name. So tonight when the party was over, Jia kissed her good night and Hong told her a small story (which became their daily routine.) Hong even bought her a small book to read to her every night. At last Hong walked out, extinguishing the fire from the chandelier above her.

When she thought Hong was far from her room, she threw the soft blanket aside and walked to the desk. She took the locket off her neck and stared at it. Mixed feelings swirling around her mind. Finally she took a deep breath and lit a small but hot fire on her index finger. She put the locket down the opposite side, not the side that said Crystal but the side that had nothing. Carefully she melted the metal to write her new name the way Hong and Jia showed her.

_Aura_

That was her name. From now on she is Aura. An adopted daughter of a government official.


	6. Joy and Friends

**A New Life:**

**Chapter 5:**

**Joy To Friends**

Crystal, no Aura, she was Aura now. She was playing with her beautiful doll. Jia and Hong bought her a toy tea set. She was pretending to have a tea party worth the doll.

"Would you like some tea ?" Aura said over dramatically.

"Oh, yes please, Miss Aura." She moved the doll's head and said it in a high pitched tone so that it seemed like the doll was talking. She pretended to pour tea into the small cup and made a show of drinking it.

"Oh, Miss Aura may I join the tea party?" Jia came in through the door and bowed dramatically.

"Oh yes you may!" Aura giggled. Jia sat down beside her. Aura pretended to pour tea into her cup and Jia pretended to drink it.

"Oh this tea is very delicious!" Jia made a show of smelling it.

"This is the finest tea from the Fire Nation."

"Oh yes I can taste it!" They giggled. "Alright, time for lunch!"

"I'm coming mom!" Aura said softly. Jia looked surprised.

"Mom?" Jia said it in a low voice. Aura nodded. Jia's mouth quivered up in a smile. Her eyes were sparkling cause of the tears of joy. "Oh, come here!" She hugged Aura lovingly. "I always wanted my own child." She whispered.

Behind them Hong walked in, "It's time for lunch! What's taking so long?" He stopped dead at the scene before him. "What's going on?"

Jia looked up from her tear streaked eye. "She called me mom."

"Dad!" Aura said running to Hong. "Dad?" Hong just stood there dumbfounded.

"Let's go it's time for lunch!" Aura was shaking Hong's hand. "Um, yes, lunch, let's go." That finally got him out of the trance. He hugged Aura and Jia joined in. The happy family was enjoying each other's company.

* * *

It was winter already. The weather was still warm but at least it's cooler. The hotness gets tiring sometimes. Jia, Hong and Aura were going to visit one of the other noble families. Aura was told that the family was Jia's old friend and they were gone on a vacation for a few months. Jia told her that the family had six daughters and one of them is her age. She said it would be fun, but to Aura it sounded like an awful lot of children. Must be disastrous at that house.

Finally Hong knocked on the door. A servant opened it and gestured them to walk in. What she saw when she entered the house knocked the air out of her. All the girls were running around and fighting each other. Yelling, running, breaking and stealing. The servants were trying to stop them and one of them was also trying to catch what seemed to be the youngest of the sisters, with a broom. She was jumping around dodging it with her amazing acrobatic skills. Two others, who were twins, were pulling each other's hair and seemed to be fighting over a comb. Another two were throwing eggs at the servants who were trying to capture them. The three guests just stared wide eyed at the disaster before them.

"What's going on here!" Everyone stopped and looked up at the stairs. The man slowly came down looking very angry. As he came down Aura got a closer look at him. He had dark rings under his eyes and his hair was done in a small topknot. He almost looked old, probably from the pressure of taking care of six little trouble makers. "Get in line!" His voice boomed through the room and immediately the girls were standing in a straight line in front of the three guests. It seemed like the girls had a similar look.

Aura looked up at her parents. Hong gave her a look that said; _you won't be that much of a trouble will you?_

A woman came down from the stairs wearing a beautiful dress. Behind her another lady, a teenager, came down. The young lady ran down and lined up along with the other sisters.

"I am very sorry for what happened here. I hope my daughters haven't caused any trouble for you." The man apologized. The man and woman (the parents) bowed in respect. Aura, Jia and Hong did the same.

"Oh, no, nothing happened, Chao" Hong gave a nervous laugh.

The woman and Jia hugged each other. "It's nice to see you again, Ai." Jia mumbled.

The woman squealed, "Isn't she the one you've adopted?"

"Um...Yes" Jia replied. "Her name is Aura."

"Hello nice to meet you ma'am." Aura bowed.

"Wow, now, she has a lot more manners than our daughters." Ai exchanged a look with her husband.

"Why don't you kids go and play?" Jia suggested. "Go with Ty Lee, she's your age."

The girl from the end of the line jumped up and down, "Lets go!" She squealed. She grabbed Aura's hand and pulled her arm so that it could come out of its socket.

"Have fun!" That was the only thing Aura heard before she was forcefully pulled to the girl's room. She was almost horrified at the thought of staying here for awhile. It seemed like a house with pink, happy, jumpy, cheerfully scary monster kids who's going to rip off your arm when you visit them.

Finally the girl stopped and closed the door to her scary pink room. Aura looked around there were cute dolls all around and a small tea table for playing with her dolls. Everything in her room was pink. Everything! This girl is definitely a pink lover!

She snatched Aura's hand and shook it violently with a huge happy smile on her face, "Hello! My name is Ty Lee!"

"Nice to meet you Ty Lee." Aura gave her a nervous laugh. Finally Ty Lee released her hand. She looked at Aura expectantly. Then Aura remembered that she had to introduce herself, "Um, My name is Aura."

"Hello Aura. So what do you wanna do?" Ty Lee's big brown eyes stared at her.

"Um, I don't know." Aura shuffled around.

"I know what we should do!" Ty Lee grabbed her arms _again_. _From now on I will have to make sure that this girl won't break my arms_, Aura thought sarcastically. Ty Lee sat Aura down on her bed and she sat down beside her. Still smiling.

"Let's play Quiz Each Other!" Ty Lee clapped her hands out of pure joy. Aura just stared at her dumbfounded.

"Tch, tch, tch," Ty Lee shook her head. "It's a game where we ask questions to get to know each other." Ty put her arm around Aura's neck, "Cause we are gonna be best friends!" Ty Lee looked her straight in the eyes. "Right?" Suddenly her mood seemed to shift and her eyes seemed sad.

"Yeah, best friends!" Aura fake cheered. _Oh, why did I do that?_ Aura scolded herself. Ty Lee put her arms in the air and yelled "Yay!"

"I'll start." Ty Lee pointed at herself. "What's your favorite color?"

"Pink and red."

"Pick one!"

"Ah, no, I like both."

"There's gotta be one that you really really like much."

"No."

Ty Lee pouted.

"Ok! Fine! Red! Happy!" Aura through her hands up in the air out of frustration. Ty Lee gave her a thumbs up. "Your turn!"

"Are you always this cheery?"

"Yes!"

"Um, ok..."

"What do you like to do for fun?" Ty Lee asked.

"Play." Aura said halfheartedly.

"Anything else?"

"That's pretty much it." Aura shrugged. "My turn!" _Wait! No! What am I doing? I'm actually enjoying it!_ she slapped herself mentally. _Ugh, just admit it, you like her._ She took a deep breath. "Alright, what do you do for fun?"

"I'm an acrobat." To demonstrate it, Ty Lee did a little cartwheel and spun herself in the air. Amazingly she didn't knock down any furniture and the ceiling seems to be high enough.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Aura found herself standing up on the bed and clapping.

"Thank you!" Ty Lee bowed theatrically. Giving kisses in the air. "Thank you, thank you very much, ladies and gentleman." They giggled.

For the rest of the night Aura found herself making a new friend.

* * *

Another year flew by and Aura has turned 6. This means she can go to school now! One more week. She found herself getting supplies for school. She was actually excited. She was ready to meet new people and learn. The good thing was that she and Ty Lee were going to the same school, The Royal Academy For Girls.

She and Ty Lee spent a lot of time together. They were pretty much best friends. Just like Ty Lee said the first day they met.  
Ty Lee decided that it would be best to wear new clothes to school so we went shopping. It seems like Aura's fashion sense is way better than Ty Lee's.

Over the course of the month Ty Lee taught Aura some of the acrobatic skills. But even Aura couldn't surpass her friend's amazing talent.

That doesn't mean Aura's not good at fire bending. Whenever she's home alone (except for the servants) she would go to the family library and take the fire bending scrolls even though she's supposed to wait till school. Hong said that the school will be teaching fire bending. Sometimes she would invite Ty Lee to help her out and sometimes she'd learn it by herself. At the beginning she had trouble getting the fire in control but with Ty lee's help she figured out that she had to keep her breathing in control.

Altogether her life was turning out to be great! She can't wait to go to school!

* * *

**A/N:** _This pretty much short stories of her life until school. I wonder if anybody's surprised by seeing Ty Lee. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks to all my reviewers, followers and likers! A special thanks to Jsaba for her awesome support! Please R&amp;R!_


	7. Bad School Day

**A New Life**

** Chapter 6:**

**Bad School Day**

The two girls squealed, jumping up and down. "Finally we are going to school!" They screamed at the same time.

Aura and Ty Lee walked to the building along with the other kids. They had an almost identical purses, Ty lee's was pink while Aura's was red. They were wearing the school uniform, which was a red dress with black trimmings along the collar and a black belt, red pants under a black and gold boots.

While they were walking Ty Lee noticed a dark haired girl with two buns on both sides of her head, she was standing on the shadow of a tree. Ty Lee grabbed hold of Aura's sleeves and pointed at the girl. At first Aura looked confused but then she noticed the dark shadowed girl.

"Let me guess, you are gonna go to her and try to cheer her up. Plus try to be her friend." Aura joked.

"Don't be like that!" Ty Lee pouted. "She needs some cheering up! I can see it in her aura."

Aura smirked, "What are you gonna do? Say some cheerful fraises, annoy her and drag her into school. Oh! And say that 'we are gonna be best friends forever'?" Aura said sarcastically.

Ty Lee nodded innocently, "Although, I didn't think of the annoying her part. It's actually a nice idea!" She said fake looking thoughtful.

Aura groaned, "You can't seriously be considering this!"

Ty Lee giggled at her friends misfortune, "Come on! It'll be fun!" She linked her arms with Aura and walked her to the girl.

Aura grumbled, "That's what everyone says before something goes wrong!"

"Don't worry, it won't happen this time." Sometimes her friend's optimistic ness was annoying. She sighed out of frustration and brushed her side bangs away from her eye.

"Hello! Girl under the tree." Ty Lee waved. The girl stared but then looked off to the side.

"Now, let's go! It's obvious that she doesn't want us." Aura whispered to her friend while pulling her arm and managing to turn her around.

"Wow, wow, wow, wait a second I'm not done yet." Ty Lee turned to face the girl. Aura face palmed herself.

Ty Lee jumped right in front of the girls face, literally. "So what's your name?" The girl ignored her. "What's your name?" Ty Lee poked the girl on the head. The girl snatched Ty Lee's hand away from her face.

"If I tell you my name, will you leave me alone?" the girl said in a monotone voice.

"Maybe." Ty Lee cajoled.

The girl sighed and said in her usual monotone voice, "My names Mai."

"Hi, nice to meet you Mai! My names Ty Lee and the annoying girl over there is Aura." Aura shot her a glare.

"Now you can go." Mai dismissed.

"But I said maybe, not yes."

Obviously Mai was annoyed with Ty Lee right now. "We are gonna be best friends!" Now Aura felt like burning something. "We are gonna be late to class. Let's go!" Ty Lee walked forth as she gestured them to come.

Aura gave Mai a pitying look, "Don't worry, she's actually fun if you get to know her."

"How can you live with this?" Mai said gruffly, for the first time showing some amount of emotion. Aura shrugged.

They were headed to their classroom and it seemed liked they were in the same class. Ty Lee hugged the two girls and dragged them to their home room. Mai was seriously hating this, Aura could see it in her face even though the poor girl was trying not to show it.

Ty Lee made them sit in the front with Aura being the one behind Ty Lee's desk and Mai beside Ty Lee.

Ty Lee made an unfortunate attempt at playing Quiz Each Other with Mai, as she liked to call it.

Another girl sashayed in the classroom. She demanded confidence, attention and fear. Her hair was done in a topknot fastened by the crown of the Royal Family, her bangs were falling to the side of her face. She sat right beside Aura. For some reason that girl was making her uncomfortable. The girl seemed to notice how she acted.

"Hello, my name is Azula." The girl, Azula said. Recognition flashed behind Aura's eyes as she heard the name.

"You are the princess!" Aura looked at the girl in amazement.

"Yes, and you are?"

Aura remembered herself over the amazement, "Oh, ah, my name is Aura." She stuttered.

At that time the teacher walked in. Everyone stopped talking and faced the front of the class. "Hello students, my name is . I am your teacher this year. Welcome to The Royal Academy for Girls. This is a place for education. This is a place for you to learn..." The teacher drawled on about the numerous things we will be learning in school. Finally when she was done with that we introduced ourselves to the teacher and the rest of the class. For some reason Aura imagined school to be funner.

"Alright, whoever is a Fire Bender stand up, so that I can see who will be taking the lessons." Aura stood up and so did Azula. She looked around the room and noticed four other girls so they must be fire benders too. "Good, while the fire benders are having their lessons the non benders are having free time. Your lessons will start tomorrow." We sat down. The teacher started boring us to death again.

* * *

Later on, Ty Lee and Aura sat together on a table and ate their lunch. When the teacher dismissed us, Mai ran out of the classroom before Ty Lee could drag her out with her so now it was only Ty Lee and Aura. After they were done they went out to the playground.

They spotted Mai sitting under a tree looking pretty bored. Without saying a word Ty Lee stood a not too far away from the tree and she started showing her acrobatic skills. She did cartwheels, somersaults and handstands. A crowd was gathering around her.  
From the corner of her eyes Aura saw Azula approach Mai. They were talking about something, but she didn't know what. She had a bad feeling about this.

After awhile, Azula strode through the crowd. Azula's pointer and middle finger were pointing at Ty Lee. Aura knew what was coming so she stood just in time before Azula threw a jet of fire in front of Ty Lee and extinguished the flame. Ty Lee stumbled in the middle of a cartwheel. Aura came right in time to catch her fall.  
"What are you doing? You could've hurt her!" Aura yelled at Azula. Mai came right in time to see what has happened and she was giggling uncontrollably. "It's not funny!"

Azula just narrowed her eyes. "You are not supposed to know how to do that."

"Why not?" Aura challenged.

"Because nobles don't learn fire bending until they go to school."

"So what? I found fire bending scrolls at home and learned ahead of time."

"Ok" Azula walked away.

"That's it? Your not gonna say sorry to her?" Aura shouted.

Azula turned around, "Dont tell me what to do." She glared. Aura was speechless.

When Azula was out of sight, Aura threw a funnel of fire in the direction that the princess went, "The nerve of that girl!"

Ty Lee's eyes widened, she never saw her friend like this, "Wow, Aura relax. She's a princess what can you expect?"

"Your right. I should just calm myself." Aura took a deep breath and then she heard the teachers calling them in. It was time to go back to class.

* * *

Azula and Mai were the first one to come in the class. "Alright Mai, I'm gonna show that girl to not get I my way!"

Mai looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"Just watch." Azula smiled evilly and sat on her desk. Mai followed her example. After awhile other students came in. Finally Aura and Ty Lee came in and sat on their usual spot.

As soon as Aura sat down, Azula swiped her feet under Aura's chair producing fire along the way. Aura yelped as the chair was consumed in fire.

"Hey!" Aura threw her own fire at Azula almost burning the princesse's sleeves.

At that time Mrs. Wong walked in, seeing the effects of the girls' fighting. "What has happened here!"

"I swear . It wasn't me. Azula started it all." Aura pointed an accusing finger at Azula.

"What! You almost burned me!" Azula almost yelled, looking furious.

"You two, to the principals office!" pointed at the door.

"What! You can't do this to me! I'm the princess of the Fire Nation! My father is the son of Firelord Azulon! I'm pretty sure he can fire you or even send you to the colonies!" Azula smiled satisfied.

"I have permission from your mother to do this. Now to the office!" Mrs. Wong ordered. She handed Azula and Aura a paper explaining what has happened. They walked out of the classroom together, side by side, in silence until they came halfway to the principals office.

Aura was the one who spoke, "Why did you do that?" They stopped walking.

"Because I wanted to." Azula said like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Oh, really 'cause normally people didn't go around throwing fire at someone who's doing a cartwheel!"

"Well, Mai seemed annoyed by that girl. What her name again? Ty Lee. So I thought I would be doing her a favor!"

"Well, it was the wrong thing to do!"

"Whatever!" Azula walked on.

"This is going nowhere!" Aura groaned.

"Well, if you want let's just call it a truce." Azula face her.

"A truce." They shook hands.

They entered the principals office a short while later and explained what has happened. They waited for their parents to come and by the end of school their parents knew what they had done. Ursa picked up Azula and for Aura it was both her parents. They had a lot of explaining to do at home but later on the two girls will realize that this was the beginning to their friendship.

* * *

**A/N:** _Yay! Finally Azula and Mai is here! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I worked on this the whole morning. I had no school today so didn't know what to do So I just finished the chapter. I guess this ones a bit sloppy than usual but I'm too lazy to change it. Anyway, Hope you enjoyed! Please review, it actually gives me the motivation to continue writing! _


	8. Friendship

**A New Life**

**Chapter 7**

**Some Friendship Time**

Azula was in her room, getting ready for school. The servants were brushing her hair while she was eating some fruits. It was about a month and a half since she made the truce between her and Aura. Over the course of the month she learned that the girl was a great fire bender. Aura always came second from her in fire bending and Azula a prodigy like her teachers said. She was pretty rebellious sometimes, but also very loyal to her friends. She could use a friend (or tool) like that. If Azula could get that girl to be her friend, it could be a great advantage for her in the future. Thats why when she came to that realization, Azula started talking to that girl. Not the friend to friend talk but the classmate to classmate kind. Well, that was the first step to being her friend-"Ouch!" Azula screeched. _Stupid servants! They can't even brush my hair right!_

Azula stood and rounded to glare at the trembling servant. Than she looked at the comb. One long strand of hair was limply hanging from the comb. Azula snatched the comb away from the poor servant. She carefully took the hair off the comb and waved it in the servant's face.

"What's this?" Azula demanded.

"It's a hair princess." The servant replied.

"Not just any hair. MY HAIR!" Azula yelled.

The servant bowed her head. "I'm very sorry princess."

_Ugh! How pathetic!_ "Get out!"

"But-" the servant stared at her fearfully.

"I said _get out_!"

"Yes princess." The servant bowed and walked out of the room.

"This should be a lesson for all of you!" Azula cried out when the servant was gone.

"Yes princess." All the servants said fearfully.

She sat back down on the chair and another servant picked up the job of doing her hair. _Now where was I? Oh yes Ty Lee, that bubbly girl. _

That girl is sometimes too cheerful, painfully cheerful but her acrobatic skills are amazing _not that she will ever admit._ Behind her acrobatic skills theres something more to her. Maybe it was the feeling she got that tells her that Ty Lee will be a fighter in the future. That must be it. She also seems like the kind of person who would forgive easily, which means she will be the only one who might be with Azula even if nobody is. That's why Azula had a easier time talking to her than Aura. _That girl doesn't forgive easily._ Ty Lee's easier to win over and persuade. _Too easy, I guess._

The servant finished doing her hair into her usual topknot. Azula walked over to her closet and got her school uniform and changed.

She thought back to Mai. That girl is so good at hiding behind her mask. She never _ever_ (unless there's a good reason) shows her emotions. But there's more to her than that. What Azula found out during the month was that Mai is really good at aiming. She aims with deadly precision, literally.

Well, Azula's still working on getting Aura and Ty Lee to be her friend, it might as well be a few more days and they will officially be her friend. She smirked and walked out of her room.

* * *

Aura was in her fire bending class. Right now she was trying to make a perfect fire funnel. It was one of the things she saw from the scrolls at home but it seemed like she wasn't getting the effect right.

She thrust out her hand and a straight ribbon of fire came out of her hands. /that's not how it's supposed to look like!

She took a deep breath and thrust out her hand angrily and this time the fire spun around one another making it look like the funnel it was supposed to be. She smiled satisfied with herself.

Beside her, she heard Azula clap her hands. "Wow, that was great!"

"Thanks!" Aura beamed.

"Your welcome." Azula smiled. She slowly walked towards Aura. "So, Aura, are you free this weekend?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I was thinking, if you would like to come to my home. Ty Lee and Mai are coming." Azula revealed.

"Your home? You mean the palace?" Azula nodded. Aura stared at her, her mouth agape.

"Yes, of course!" Aura exclaimed.

"Great! Come in the afternoon ok? Bring Ty Lee along. I already told her."

"Ok." Aura grinned. The only thing she could think of right now was; /I'm going to the palace!  
She didn't think of the conflict she had with Azula at all, she was just gonna go for it!

"Alright students, your class is over." The teacher dismissed them.

"I'll see you in the weekends!" Azula waved her hand in a goodbye.

"See ya!" Aura waved back.

* * *

"I can't believe we actually got invited to go to the palace!" Ty Lee almost jumped up and down in excitement.

"I know right!" Aura exclaimed.

They arrived at the palace gates and saw Azula and Mai approach them. "Hello Aura, Ty Lee." Azula greeted. "Welcome to the palace!" She opened the gates and all of them entered.

Aura was impressed. The delicate marble floors would echo their footsteps in the almost empty hallway except for the servants roaming around. They passed banners with the fire nation insignias. The walls were decorated with small delicate designs. The place was huge, it's definitely too big for only Azula and her family.

"This place is amazing!" Ty Lee gaped. "Don't you think girls?"

Mai shrugged, "I've been here before."

"Really?"

"Yeah, me and Azula go to by the turtle duck pond every week."

"That must have been fun."

"As if fun was to get Mai to actually do something fun." Azula cut in sarcastically. Mai rolled her eyes as the two other girls giggled.

The turtle duck pond was gleaming in the suns light with the small family of turtle ducks swimming around. Beside it was a lone tree shading the place around it. The place was quiet and peaceful, probably the most peaceful place in the palace. That got ruined when Azula threw a rock into the pond making the turtle ducks scatter far from her and almost hitting one in the process. She laughed with the joy of making the turtle ducks fear her.

"What was that for? You could've hurt the turtle ducks!" Aura scolded her.

"It's not like those pathetic creatures can do anything." Azula smirked. Aura just let it drop, it's not like Azula will listen to her anyway.

"So, what do we do now?" Ty Lee asked.

"I know, Ty Lee show me some of your acrobat moves." Azula ordered.

"Ok." Ty Lee and Aura shared a look. They went a fair distance away from the other girls. Then they started doing a series of cartwheels and somersaults making Azula jealous although she was trying not to show it. In the end Ty Lee landed on the ground perfectly well while Aura stumbled a bit.

"Wow, let's see if Azula can do this." Mai said sarcastically.

"Oh, trust me! I can do this!" Azula huffed as she stomped over to where Ty Lee and Aura stood. Then she tried doing exactly what the other girls did. She did a cartwheel and then tried a somersault in the air but she fell on her butt. "Ow!" She yelped.

"Don't worry. You'll get a hang of it." Ty Lee gave her an encouraging smile.

"Whatever." Azula waved her off. At that exact moment they heard a laughter from the door to the garden. They all turned their heads to find a boy probably a couple years older than them.  
For some reason Aura couldn't take her eyes off the boy. _He was cute. Really cute._ He had those beautiful molten amber eyes that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight and those silky jet black hair that was done in a small ponytail on the crown of his head. Plus what he's wearing is so cool and the way he laughed was so cute! _Wait a second, just stop staring for now!_  
Beside her Ty Lee elbowed her and gestured her eyes to a profusely blushing Mai. She swore that Mai's face was the color of a bright red tomato and she was looking at the ground shyly. That boy must be her not-so-secret-crush.

"Oh, Azula that was really funny!" The boy said in between fits of laughter.

Azula glared at him, crossing her arms and looking away. "Well Zuzu, it so happens to be that you are interrupting us."

"Whatever." He dismissed but his eyes fell on Aura and Ty lee. "Are they your new friends?"

"Oh yes I guess I should've introduced you to them." She said angrily. "Zuko this is Aura and the pink is Ty Lee. Ty Lee, Aura that's my dum-dum brother Zuko."

Zuko ignored his sister's remark and instead smiled at the two girls. At that moment Aura felt like her heart was going to melt at the sight of his cute smile. "Nice to meet you." Zuko said.

"Hi." Aura waved shyly at him. She could feel her face heating up and she had a feeling that she was blushing as badly as Mai although she was trying very hard not to show it. She looked around her and saw that Azula was very busy glaring at her brother, if looks could kill she had a feeling that Zuko would be dead by now and Mai was still looking at the ground. Luckily nobody seems to notice what's going on with Aura except for Ty Lee, who was giving her those weird looks that your best friends give when your crush is near you.

"I'll just leave now." Zuko turned around giving a dismissive wave.

"Good riddance!" Azula yelled at her brother's back as he left. "So, what now?" Azula asked as Ty Lee shrugged.

* * *

A few weeks have passed, Ty Lee and Aura were walking home together from school.

"You have a crush on Zuko!" Ty Lee suddenly bursted out.

"What! No! I do not!" Aura avoided eye contact from Ty Lee as she tried looking away from her friend.

"Yes you do. I've seen the way you looked at him. I mean, you were staring at him like he was some spirit. And your face! Oh gosh, it was so red! I would've laughed but I kept it in! And your-"

"Ok I get! You think I have a crush on him!" Aura cried out interrupting Ty Lee.

"Well, do you?" Ty Lee said in a sing-song voice.

"Maybe." Aura admitted, guiltily looking at the ground.

"Yes!" Ty Lee pumped her fists up in the air, a triumphant smile on her face.

Aura just sighed. "I still can't get to him."

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee looked at her concerned.

"I mean, Mai also likes him and that makes me feel...I don't know, bad, I guess. And if I was the one who got him, then she would hate me and... and." Aura stuttered as her eyes started to water.

"Oh, Aura, this is really messed up."

"I know and I don't think I even want him to like me."

"Aura, it's alright. I will help you in whatever way I can." Ty Lee patted Aura on the back.

"Really?"

"Yes, of course. We are best friends right? I will be there for you whenever you need me."

Aura looked at Ty Lee through her tear streaked eyes. She was so grateful that she hugged her friend and whispered, "Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a huge platypus-bear was lifted off my back."

"That's more like it." Ty Lee laughed good naturedly.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome."

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ I am so so so sorry for updating really late. I was really busy the past few days with helping my parents take care of my baby sis (who is about 5 days old right now) so I didn't have time to finish the story. I rushed the last part so I'm very sorry if it's really sloppy. That sentence kind of rhymed:D. This chapter is 2000 words! Yay! It's the longest Chapter I've ever written! Anyway, Thanks For Reading! I hope you enjoyed!_

_Thank you to all my wonderful readers And reviewers! A social Thanks to Jsaba and Digi-fanCapp for reviewing every chapter. Thank you to Demonpie17 and ThatOneGirlNoOneNotices for reviewing too. Thank you to everyone for the great motivation. XOXO 3_

Please R&amp;R! :-)


	9. Reasons

**A New Life **

**Chapter 8**

**The Reason For This**

Aura got ready for Ping to come and give her a lesson of what exactly this organization is about. She was glad that it wasn't Hong who was going to do that, he would make her feel miserable and destroy her good mood this afternoon. After that she decided to visit the library to learn the history of this world. History was her favorite subject anyway, although she knew what the Fire Nation is doing is wrong. She understood that the Firelord was power hungry, but seriously, did they have to make everyone miserable? Even their own people sometimes?

She heard a knock on the door._ Ping must be here. _Aura ran down the stairs (Jia will sure scold her for the un-ladylike behavior). She went directly to the living room waiting for Pong to come in. She tried to listen to Ping who seemed to be talking to Hong and Jia. Finally Ping walked in and sat on one of the plush sofa across from Aura. Ping put her bag down on the table that was separating them.

"So Aura, how was the month?" Ping asked.

"Oh, good!" Aura said swinging her feet.

"How's school going?"

"It's great! I made new friends!" _Yeah right, it's not great at all. More like boring._ She wondered why she was even exited to go to school in the first place. _Guess parents love to make boring things sound fun._

"Oh really? That's nice!" Ping took out some papers that said _Confidential_ on it. _Wow, seriously? It's very tempting to look inside it._ "Do you know why I'm are here today?"

"To teach me why exactly you bring children from the other world."

"Yup!" Ping chirped. "So, let's start with..." Ping glanced at the paper. "Let's start with why we do this."

"Yeah, why?" Aura interrupted sarcastically.

Ping raised her eye brows, giving her a questioning look. "Anyway, we do this because in the other world, there's no such things as benders, the people there don't believe in these things. But time to time, there are a couple kids who are born as benders."

"So, If we lived in the other world, we would cause chaos all over the place?" Aura guessed.

"Exactly! See, aren't you a smart girl?" Ping cleared her throat and continued. "So, that's why we do this. Than when we find those benders we take them to this world and then find out if they are an earth bender, water bender or fire bender. The air benders are considered extinct in the other world too."

"Pretty much, whatever happens here happens in the other world sometimes?"

"Yup! We find out they're bending and then we put them to their appropriate nations."

"But, if some are, let's say a water bender or earth bender, then why would only the fire nation be running this...uh...organization?"

"Oh, no, there are workers from the other nations too. Only the rulers of the nations know about this. It's a secret organization. The rulers pick out certain trusted people to help them with this secret."

"It must be strict."

"It is. Let's not go off topic. When we get the kids, we find them foster parents, people that we can trust with taking care of you, of course. Then you live here the rest of your life."

"Oh." There was a pregnant pause with Aura thinking about what Ping told her while Ping was waiting for her reaction.

"So...um...it's time for you to go!" Aura shot up from her seated position on the sofa and started dragging Ping along.

"Hey! Wait! My bag!" Ping spluttered. She let of Aura's hand and managed to get her bag and stuff the papers in.

Jia and Hong heard Ping leaving so they came down and said their farewells.

Aura walked up to her room, looking downcast. She flopped herself on the bed and thought about what Ping had told her. _Thats it's i lost my good mood. I guess I'll just stuff myself in my pillow and stay there like I have a coma._

* * *

**A/N:**_ I'm so so sooo sorry for the late update. I have a lot to do from school and take care of my little sister and meet with my friend to work on our project. I'm so sorry. But I hope you guys understood this. Any questions? You can ask me._

_Thank you to all my readers who's stuck with me all this time. Love you all!_


	10. Firebending

**A New Life **

**Chapter 9**

**Teaching Him Fire Bending**

This month she got hooked up on reading these amazing books. So now she walked through the street and entered the huge library. She walked past the receptionist and stood, taking in the were shelves on all parts of the building with scrolls and books of different genres. Fancy chandeliers hung above on the ceiling with bright dancing flames. The walls were the color of a light crimson unlike most official buildings.

Aura scanned through a lot of the shelves and picked out a few scrolls. One of the scrolls she found was about the different kinds of common spirits. Aura had a feeling these kinds of scrolls were rare since she didn't see any other scrolls like that. Along the way she found a scroll about Avatar Roku and also a few scrolls about the different Firelords in the past. She also found a few novels that seemed pretty interesting.

She put the scrolls down on a table and scanned through them, again. She put away one of the novels because it seems boring, and she hated being bored.

She walked to the receptionist and put the scrolls down in front of the lady. "Um, can I take these books out?"

"Yes, of course." The lady said as she took the scrolls and wrote the names of it on a piece of paper. The lady took the scroll about the different kinds of spirit. She creased her eye brows and scanned the scroll. "I never saw this book in here." The lady said.

"Oh, are you sure? 'Cause I saw it in one of the shelves." Aura pointed to the shelf she got it from.

"I don't know. Maybe someone accidentally put it there. Anyway, you can keep it, it doesn't belong to us."

"Ok, I'll just take all my scrolls now." Aura muttered and stuffed all the scrolls in her purse. She walked out of the library to home.

* * *

The next day, Aura was at the palace garden with Ty Lee, Azula, and Mai (as usual). This time she was sitting under the tree with one of the novels she borrowed from the library, while Mai sat beside her looking pretty bored.

Suddenly, Azula came and snatched the scroll from her hands. Aura shot up, "Hey! What was that for!"

"Let's practice our fire bending! There's a test the day after tomorrow. Remember?" Azula said as if she didn't just snatch the scroll from Aura.

"Just give it back!" Aura swung her hands to the scroll trying to get it from Azula, but Azula moved it up over her head.

"Not until we practice!" Azula taunted.

"Fine!" Aura stomped over to the middle of the garden where they always practiced. Azula calmly walked beside her but then she took a peek at the door (that leads to the inside of the palace) and smiled.

Aura just stood there looking confused at her friend's behavior. But instead of questioning why she was doing that Aura just asked, "So, which form are we doing first?"

"The one where we spin in the air." Azula replied.

"But we've already done that weeks ago!"

"Yeah, so? Lets just do it!" Then Azula muttered, "Zuzu is coming."

"Zuko is coming? Oh! So that's what it's all about! You just wanna show off." Aura looked at her friend with a smirk. She knew exactly why Azula wanted to do that. Azula just wanted to show off her bending to her older brother so that she could make him feel bad. Suddenly a thought occurred to her. _Zuko is coming._ She felt like slapping herself in the face! Zuko was coming! Inside her mind she was panicking but outside she stood there trying to look annoyed.

"Let's just practice it!" Azula snapped.

"Ok, whatever." Aura rolled her eyes. Her heart was beating really fast.

They went into their usual stances. "Ready?" Azula asked. Aura nodded.  
They jumped high into the air and spun as they unleashed a jet of fire. Both landed in a kneeling position.  
Aura turned to look at Azula and behind her friend she saw Zuko. He looked really annoyed. "Hey Azula, when your done go to mother. She called you." Zuko said.

"Why should I listen to you?" Azula said.*

"Because I'm your big brother."

"How can you be my brother, much less my _big_ brother, if you can't even fire bend."

"Excuse me? I can fire bend very well, alright! I can prove to you that!"

"Then show me the same move we just did." Azula said calmly.

"Ok, I will!" Zuko stomped over to an empty space by Azula. He jumped into the air, but he spun halfway only throwing out a few weak jets of flame. He landed on one foot which got bent and he fell in a heap on the ground. Zuko groaned.

Azula laughed at him. "Useless! I shall tell father what a failure you are."

Without a word Aura ran over to Zuko and helped him up. She felt sorry for him, he was always taunted by his sister. "You okay?" Aura whispered.

"Yeah I'm fine, thanks." Zuko dusted himself off. On the inside Aura's heart melted into a huge puddle of happiness. _Zuko said thank you to me and nobody else._ On the outside she just smiled a _Your Welcome_ at him.

"Why did you do that?" Azula folded her arms looking down at Aura with this glare.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Aura glared back. This went on for a while until Zuko said in defeat, "Go and meet mother, ok?" He walked out of the garden.  
Aura felt the need to follow him and comfort him so she decided run after him.

OOOOO

"Hey." Aura said casually as if the whole incident never happened.

"What do you want?" Zuko grumbled.

"Huh? Nothing, I thought you might need some help in fire bending." _Wow where did I get that from?_

"I don't need your help."

"Wow, when I picked you up outside, you were so much nicer. And now, look at you. So angry!"

"Whatever, you've annoyed me enough. Now you may leave me."

"Nah, I'd rather follow you." There was an awkward pause as they walked on. "So, where are you going?"

"To the training grounds."

"To practice your fire bending? That's great!" Aura grinned. Zuko shrugged.  
"You know, I could help you."

Zuko sighed, "I said I don't need your help."

"If I helped, you would learn the moves faster."

"Whatever."

They finally walked in the training grounds. Which was indoors with walls made of wood. _How atypical. At least the place is huge and it had a few windows._

Zuko ignored Aura and went on to practice his fire bending. He tried the same move but with zero improvement. He tried it several times but each time he fell on his butt and couldn't spin the flames. Aura sat on the floor watching Zuko struggle.

"You know you should-" Aura tried giving advice but each time Zuko cut her off with, "I don't need your help!"

Finally Zuko got fed up and he stomped over to Aura. "I need your help." Zuko hung his head in defeat.

"So now you want my help, huh?"

"Yes."

"Ok, but what's the magic word?"

"Please?"

Aura stood up. "You what I think you should try?"

"What?"

"I think you should first try to do the spinning part on the ground and then try doing it in the air."

Zuko nodded.

"Try it without fire bending first." Aura suggested.

Zuko did as he was told. He spun kicking his legs out, which he was perfectly good at. "Then?" Zuko asked.

"Try with fire bending." Aura said.

Zuko spun letting out a faint jet of fire. "Try again." Aura told him. This time the flames were bigger and stronger. "That was good. Wanna try it in the air now?"

Zuko nodded. He jumped up in the air unleashing a jet of fire but he stumbled when he landed on the ground.

"That was way better than before!" Aura said amazed.

"Thanks! I don't think I would've gotten it without your help!" Zuko beamed.

"Your welcome!" Aura gave him a thumbs up. She then looked at the window. "I think it's time for me to go. I'm supposed to walk home with Ty Lee. Bye." She waved as she went out of the training ground and went to look for Ty Lee.

* * *

When Aura found Ty Lee, they quickly went out of the palace and walked home together as usual.

"What did you do with Zuko?" Ty Lee asked giving Aura one of those huge smiles.

"Oh, I just helped him in his fire bending." Aura blushed.

"Really? How was it? Must've been exciting!"

"Yeah, sure. It was fun."

"Great! Are you guys gonna do it again?"

"I don't know." Aura admitted.

"Too bad. You should go to him and then help him. You guys would get closer and closer that way." Ty Lee suggested.

"I guess that'll work." They stopped, this was the place where they would split up and go to their own houses. Aura was relieved that she didn't have to have this conversation anymore.

"I wish I could talk to you about it more, but I have to go." Ty Lee said.

"Me too, Bye." Aura waved.

"Bye." Ty Lee waved her goodbye as they split up.

* * *

**A/N: **_Thank you so much for reading my story! I know I was not updating these chapters on time, but for once her you go! I got 22 reviews!Thank You Sooooo Much To All My Readers! I hope you enjoyed it. Please review! It means a lot to me._


	11. Happy Birthday To Me

**A New Life **

**Chapter 10:**

**Happy Birthday To Me**

Aura was with Zuko at the training room and she was helping him in his fire bending. At first he was horrible but as he moved on he became better even though there were some missteps.

Aura looked out the window and noticed that the sun was almost setting. She was supposed to ask Zuko something but she didn't have the courage to. But now it was time for her to leave so she simply asked him the question.

"Zuko, it's almost time for me to go and I wanted to ask you something." Aura said.

"Sure, what is it?" He stopped fire bending in the middle of the form.

"Will you come to my birthday party? It's next week." Aura said it really fast.

"Of course!" He grinned.

"You will?" Aura looked at him wide eyed. She was expecting him to deny the request, so this was a shock to her.

"Yes, of course. I can't miss my friends birthday party."

"So, that means you are coming, right?" Aura looked at him grinning ear to ear.

"Yes, how often should I say that?"

"A million." They laughed. "I should go and look for Ty Lee. We are walking home together. Bye." Aura waved and Zuko waved back.

**000000000000000**

Aura walked to the palace garden finding Azula, Mai and Ty Lee gathered together near the pond.

"Ty Lee! We should be leaving right now!" Aura walked towards the three girls.

"I'm coming!" Ty Lee ran over to Aura and whispered in her ear. "Did you ask them if they are coming?"

"Not yet but I will." Aura whispered back.

"You should ask them now." Ty Lee said. Aura nodded and walked over to the other two girls with Ty Lee behind her.

"Azula, Mai, I wanted to ask if you guys would come to my birthday party? It's next week." Aura said.

"Ok." Mai simply said.

"That's great! What about you Azula? Can you come?" aura looked hopefully at Azula.

"I'll see, I might be busy." Azula studied her nails not even noticing her friend's downcast look.

"But, please try to come! It would mean a million to me."

"I told you. I'll see!" Azula sounded very annoyed right now.

"Ok, let's just go." Ty Lee said nervously. She was about to pull Aura along with her but just them Mai said that she was coming along. All three girls out of the palace.

On the way Mai asked, "What kind of party are you planning on doing?"

"It's a little friends gathering. I told my parents that I didn't want to do those huge banquets." Aura said.

"I bet it's gonna be fun! I want to be the first guest to be there." Ty Lee chimed in.

Mai ignored Ty Lee and instead asked another question. "We are the only ones that you invited, right?"

"Plus Zuko."

"Oh...um, my home is the other way. I should be going now. Bye!" Mai walked away.

After Mai was out of sight Ty Lee gave her one of those huge smiles. "So, you invited Zuko, huh?"

"Just stop it! Ty Lee!"

"Ok, whatever. It's time for us to go anyway. Bye." Ty Lee waved as she walked away.

"Bye-bye" Aura waved looking very annoyed.

* * *

_At the birthday party..._

Someone knocked on the door. A servant shuffled to open the door. As soon as the door was wide open Ty Lee walked in without saying anything and went to the living room (where she knew that her friend would be there) and sat beside Aura while putting the gift beside her.

"Happy Birthday!" Ty Lee said.

"So, you weren't kidding when you said that you were going to be really early." Aura said.

"Yup!" Ty Lee chirped. Ty Lee looked at the table filled with food and noticed a platter of chocolate. She reacted instantly and chucked a huge one to her mouth. "Delicious!"

"Hey! Don't hog all the food!" Aura snapped.

"Sorry! I just couldn't resist it!" Ty Lee said with her mouth still full with the chocolate.

Aura rolled her eyes.

"I can't wait for the party to start! Can I see the cake!?" Ty Lee asked when she was done eating.

"When everyone's here."

"Awww, too bad."

The two kept on talking until there was another knock on the door.

They ran to the door to find Mai and Zuko coming in with the gifts. "Happy Birthday!" They said.

"Hi guys!" Aura cheered with excitement. "You two came together."

"We met while we were walking to your house." Zuko said.

"That's great!" Aura lied. "Where's Azula?"

"She said she couldn't come. She's busy or something."

"Oh." Her shoulders fell.

" Don't worry. We are gonna have a lot of fun without her." Mai said. "Here's your gift." She handed Aura the gift.

"First let's go to the living room." They all went to the living room and sat on the plush sofa. Aura and Ty Lee sat in the same spot with Mai and Zuko across from them. Aura definitely didn't like the fact that Mai and Zuko were sitting together (and touching! A bit) but it's her birthday party and she can't do anything about this 'cause that would seem weird.

"Let's open the gifts!" Aura said to distract herself from her thoughts.

"Don't gift openings come last?" Mai said.

"Well, I can't wait to open them? I'm not the kind to wait."

"Ok, sure."

Aura started first with Mai's gift since it was right in her hands. She opened the gift bag to find a pretty hair accessory with pink glittering diamonds making the shape of a small heart which was on a silver thing.

"This is so pretty! I love it! Thanks!" She admired the pretty head dress and put it on.

"Your welcome!" Mai had a small smile on her lips. Aura smiled back.

"Next let's open Ty Lee's gift." Aura announced. She took the gift bag that was on the ledge of the sofa and opened it. Inside was a small diary with _BFFs To The Moon And Back_ written on it. Along with a half-of-a-heart friendship bracelet with rainbow colored stones. She got the one that said Friends. Ty Lee unfolded hers from her sleeves and she got the one that said Best. "Cool! I like it! Thanks Ty Lee!" They hugged and put their bracelets together. Aura wore her bracelet afterwards for the whole party.

"Next let's open Zuko's."

Zuko walked over to Aura and gave her the gift. "Here you go. I think you'll like it."

"Thanks!" Aura unwrapped the gift box and opened it. Inside were three bracelets. One was black with different kinds of stones and the other one was white with heart shaped crystals going around. The last one was with purple, gray and silver stones going around. "These are beautiful Zuko! I love it! Thank You!"

"Your welcome!" Zuko said. An awkward silence enfolded around them as they were waiting for someone to day something.

Finally Mai broke the silence by saying, "There's something else in my gift bag."

"What is it?" Aura asked.

"Open it."

Aura did as she was told. Inside was a card with three little human figures stand in and holding hands with confetti all around. On top of it was something written on it. She read it aloud:

_"It's time once again _

_for everyone to sing _

_a birthday song..."_

She flipped it over and read it out again:

_"...as if getting older_

_wasn't painful enough._

_Anyway, Hope It's Happy"_

"Wow, seriously Mai?" Aura said amusedly.

"Yes." Mai said. They all laughed at the quote. At that moment Aura's 'parents' came in.

"Mom, dad! Meet my friends." Aura said as she stood up.

"Your friends are here? Great!" Jia said.

"It's very nice to finally meet you, kids." Hong said.

"This is Mai and that's Prince Zuko. And you already know Ty Lee." Aura introduced as she pointed at them.

"Prince Zuko? You mean the our prince?" Jia asked.

"Yup."

"It's an honor to meet you, Prince Zuko." Jia and Hong bowed at him.

"No need to be so formal. I'm just here to enjoy my friend's birthday party." Zuko said sheepishly.

"Alright then, young man. The cake's ready." Hong said.

"Yay!" Ty Lee cheered and ran to the dining hall before everyone else.

"Wow, she is sure excited." Mai said in her usual monotone voice.

"I know right." Aura said.

They all went to the dining hall and found Ty Lee already seated on one of the chairs. "Come on guys! It's Aura's birthday! Be more enthusiastic!" Ty Lee beckoned.

"Like you?" Mai said.

"Yes." Ty Lee made cute doggy eyes.

Mai sighed. "Yay. Let's cut the cake." She said in a bored manner.

Aura walked to the middle of the table where the cake was and everyone started singing the Happy Birthday song.

When they were done, they took their seats and took a cake.

"How old are you now?" Zuko asked.

"Eight." She replied with her mouth full.

"Congrats!" He said. After that they all ate in an awkward silence.

Which was interrupted by Ty Lee when she said, "Aura, remember the song I told you about?"

Everyone in the room stared blankly at Ty Lee.

"Which song?" Aura asked.

"Happy birthday to me and so on."

"OOOOh! That one!"

"Let's sing it!" Ty Lee said.

"This is a song Ty Lee's told her."

The two shared a look and started singing.

_"Happy Birthday To Me_

_I'm a thousand and three_

_I just started school _

_And I miss my mommy_

_My mommy's at work_

_She fired a jerk_

_She hired a monkey_

_To do my homework_

_My teacher got mad_

_She swore at my dad_

_She killed my monkey_

_And I was so sad"_

They started laughing. Zuko and Mai were simply looking at the two like they were crazy.

The afternoon went on like that with everyone having fun and doing crazy things.

* * *

**A/N: **_Yup! It's a birthday chapter and that means... It's My Birthday! at least it was yesterday. I was too lazy to upload it yesterday so I did it today. Anyway hope you enjoyed!_

_I bet it was boring though. The only highlight about this chapter was the song and the quote from the card I think. Some of the gifts featured here are real gifts my friends gave me._

_I got 24 reviews! Yay! Thank you sooooo much! this means a lot to me! I never thought I would reach this much reviews! Thank You! Please review to tell me what you think about the story! It means a zillion._

**A/N Update**: _So...um, one of my reviewers _(bendergurl123)_ pointed out that I wrote Jin instead of Jia and she was right. I quickly went through the story and fixed the mistakes. So so SO so sorry! I guess you guys got really confused. Sorry! What a stupid mistake!_


	12. Talking

**A New Life **

**Chapter 11**

**Just having a talk**

Aura was upset that Azula didn't come to her party. She thought that Azula would be really exited. _They were friends after all. _She had a feeling Zuko was lying. She knew that Azula wasn't busy. She never really was. She only pretends to be busy so that she can avoid something.

To forget about all this, Aura got out the scroll about spirits. The one she got from the library, the one that apparently didn't belong to the library. She'd had it for a while now and she's read it a couple of times. It was interesting, there were stories of the Water spirits Tui and La, stories of earth he earth spirits, and the Fire Nation spirits Agni. There were stories of of the minor spirits. As she said before, it was interesting so she loved reading it over and over again. She read it for the whole afternoon. She knew that if she didn't keep herself distracted she would go back to thinking about Azula's real motives. Although she enjoyed her birthday very much, it still upset her that Azula didn't come.

* * *

_A month later..._

Aura heard the bad news. She heard that Prince Lu Ten died at the siege of Ba Sing Se. She thought that might upset Azula, so she went to visit the palace,/alone. Normally, she came with Ty Lee 'cause she didn't feel comfortable going by herself, for some reason. But this time she didn't really care. She knew how much Azula loved Prince Lu Ten, /before he went off to war anyway. Azula always tried sounding like she didn't care about him, but she talked too much about him for her to not care. She decided this situation will upset her and maybe, _just maybe, _she'll open up a little more.

Finally, after a long and lonely walk she arrived at the palace. The guards let her through 'cause they knew that she was the princess's friend. They didn't normally let anyone in.

Now she just had to go to Azula's chambers. Aura walked through the long corridors of the palace and finally arrived at the door that would lead her to her friend's room. She knocked on the door. A servant opened the door.

"Is Princess Azula inside? May I talk to her?" Aura asked. The servant nodded and let her in.

As she entered, she saw Azula sitting on a chair with several servants combing her hair, painting her nails and other essentials a princess needs. To be honest, all these years they'd been friends Azula never showed them to her chambers. But she went pass it a couple of times. The place was huge! The walls were painted in the most beautiful red with a banner with the Fire Nation emblem on it. The big cushioned crimson bed was to the side of the huge room between the window and an empty wall. Then there was a tall door leading to the balcony, (which was open for now) with small golden Fire Nation emblems. In front of where Azula was sitting, was a huge mirror, beside that was a dresser with jewelry and some make-up (Did she ever really wear that much make-up?) along with a couple of drawers. Plus here she had her own private bathing room. This is exactly where a princess would live in.

Aura walked up to Azula as she acknowledged her. "Why are you here?"

_Ouch! That was rude! _"I just came to talk to you."

"About what?" Azula dismissed the servants with a wave of her hands and soon after that they dropped what they were doing and walked out of the room in a line.

"About..." Aura didn't exactly know how to fraise it out, so she just said what first came to mind. "I was gonna talk to you about Lu Ten. I thought you might miss him and I know how much you loved him. No matter how much you tried to prove yourself wrong. And I came to help you with the feelings you must be feeling."

Azula sighed. "I clearly don't miss him and I clearly don't like him."

"Azula puh-lease! I know you. I know you like him and you miss him! I think you are just lying to yourself!" And it was the truth, Aura had been having this assumption for a while.

_Oops, I guess that wasn't the right thing to say._ Aura thought as Azula's eyes lit up with anger as she the rose from her chair and glared at Aura. "How dare you talk to me that way! I am not lying to myself! Don't make assumptions too quickly! Get out of my room!

"But..."

"Now!"

Aura hurried out of the room. That was rude. It's no way to talk to a friend! She might have thought that Azula might care a little more about her feelings. Well, obviously she didn't! But her outrage seemed to prove something to her. She doesn't want to talk about it? Then she is upset. She's angry? She's too upset to even care about others and didn't watch over her temper. Yup, she does care. With this new thought and feeling a little satisfaction, she went home.

* * *

_A day later..._

Two people died from the Royal Family and one disappeared, in the events of two days. First Prince Lu Ten and now Princess Ursa and Fire Lord Azulon at the same night. People told her that Princess Ursa disappeared all of a sudden at night. Then there's Fire Lord Azulon who died peacefully while he was sleeping.  
Azula and Zuko must be grieving! Their mother disappearing without telling them and their grandfather died just like that! Aura knew how she would feel and she guessed that the two siblings would feel the same way. But Azula? She was not that sure about her. This time she must feel something since it's her mother and also her grandfather. At the most she must be sad about her mother.

This time Aura headed for the palace to accomplish something. As she did the other day, she knocked on the door and the servant let her in.

"So, did you come her to have another 'talk'?" Azula asked as soon as Aura walked in. It was as if Azula was expecting her.

"Maybe I did." For some reason Aura felt the need to stand tall and confident.

"Oh, you heard the news." It was not a question And it wasn't asked like one.

"Yes." Aura paused for Azula to say something. When It was obvious that Azula was not going to say anything, she said, "How do you feel?"

"Great."

"Aren't you sad?"

"No."

"Why not? Your mother disappeared and your grandfather died."

"So? Your point is?" Azula walked over to her and raised one eye brow.

"Aren't you gonna miss them? It's your family!" Aura looked at her disbelieving.

"No." _That's it!? A simple no!? Ugh! This is going nowhere!_

"I'll be going home now. Bye." Aura said and walked out of the room. It was obvious that Azula wasn't going to say anything. But before she left, she heard a little "Good Riddance" from behind her. That was hurtful.

She walked through the palace corridors looking defeated, heading for the exit. But as she was walking by she noticed Zuko on a left turn. He looked extremely sad and it seemed to her that he was heading towards the garden with the turtle-duck pond. She decided to go after him.

When she caught up she said. "Hi."

"Oh, hey." Zuko just kept on walking.

"Are you okay?" Aura looked at him concerned.

"No, I'm not! How can anyone expect me to be okay! My mom disappeared!" Zuko almost shouted with anger boiling inside of him.

"I'm sorry." Aura looked down at the floor.

"Why would you be sorry?"

"I don't know. The way you were talking made me feel like I was the one who expects you to be okay."

Zuko shook his head. "No, I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about someone else."

Aura was relieved, she didn't want him to be angry at her. She gave him a small heart warming smile. They walked in silence to the garden and when they arrived they sat under the tree.

"Why don't you try distracting yourself, as in try forgetting it." Aura knew she wasn't good at giving advice but right now she was concerned about Zuko. She was pretty much relating things to herself and what she would do if she was in this situation. _As if she hasn't been separated from her real parents._ "It sometimes helps. You think think about."

"Easy for you to say. Your not the one who's mother disappeared." Zuko said skeptically.

"You have no idea." Aura muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing." An awkward silence descended upon them. After awhile Aura got tired of sitting there doing nothing 'cause obviously Zuko won't take her advice. She she stood up and said. "I should be going now. My parents would be worried."

"Sure, see you soon." Zuko gave her a half hearted wave as he sulked under the tree.

"See ya."

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi everyone! I'm back with this weeks chapter! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I was planning on making it longer but for some reason I'm not all that good at making long stories, unfortunately. I never was, but I'm trying._

_Anyway, forget about all that And let's say thank you to the last chapters reviewers._

_I'd like to say thanks to **bendergurl123** for pointing out the mistake I did with the last chapter._

_I'd like to thanks **Jsaba** for reviewing every single chapter and being my best buddy on FFN._

_To answer **NatNicole**'s question: I agree Zuko/OC are overdone and I am tired of reading them too. I don't wanna spoil the story so ya..._

_**IceSecrets**, I'm glad you are excited to read the next chapter thank you!_

_And thank you to my silent readers who's been reading the story._

_Yay! I'm soooo happy! You know why? I'm almost getting 30 reviews! Right now I only have 28 reviews but that's still a lot! And then I reached 2000 views! Yay! Thank you! _

_Please leave a review in the little box below. Tell me what you think about the story so far. The more reviews I get, the more I get motivated to write._


	13. Knives

**A New Life**

** Chapter 12**

**The Beginning To Throwing Knives **

_This is boring_. Mai thought as she painted the turtle-ducks in the palace gardens. It was beautiful, she had to admit, she was skilled at it, but she hated painting. It was of those lady-like things her mother made her do. And she _hated_ it!

She hated how her parents were always controlling her life! Hated how they wanted her to be the perfect lady. The perfect doll. She hated painting! She hated everything else they made her do! All those embroidery work and other lady-like things. Mai had to admit that she liked embroidery other than painting or something else, mostly because of the sharp needles that was required. It was a wonder that with all this anger boiling inside of her, she was still painting one of the turtle ducks.

Mai was also glad that she wasn't good at most of the things her parents made her do. They made her sing but her voice wasn't fit for it. They also made her play instruments but she wasn't good at all the notes and other musical crap.

At least with Azula she didn't have to worry about it. Azula was still controlling but at least with her, she could ignore her parents. At least with Azula there was a new adventure everyday. The last time Mai visited her (it was mostly to get away from her parents who were being difficult) it was a adventure, alright. But it was a bad adventure. This is what happened that day.

* * *

_Mai walked up to Azula who was walking out of her room. Azula raised an eyebrow and said, "What are you doing here? Are you bored or something?"_

_"Yes, pretty much." Mai lied because actually, her parents were being very difficult on her especially today. Azula have a hard stare trying to figure out something._

_"Well, since your here. Why don't we go to the Fire lord's garden." Azula suggested but of course if she ever suggested something, it meant she was going to have to do it. So there was no choice but to say "Yes"._

_Normally people don't go into the Fire Lord's garden unless that person was invited or that person was the Fire Lady. In this case the Fire Lord would be Ozai since Fire Lord Azulon died a week ago and the Fire Lady would've been Ursa but she disappeared. Mai guessed naturally that Fire Lord Ozai would let Azula go to the garden, with her being his favorite daughter and all._

_Finally they arrived at the Fire Lord's garden. It was a beautiful place to behold even more beautiful than the turtle-duck pond. It was bigger too and it was shaped like a circle with different kinds of trees circling the borders. There was a table along with a few chairs around it which was in the very middle of the garden and it was colored white compared to the rest of the palace furnishings. There were flowers all around the place shaping out the Fire Nation emblem. The extraordinary flowers were with different colors, shapes and scents, which made the place stand out even more. Even with all these good things, Mai was still bored._

_Mai noticed an old gardener tending to one of the trees. It was that loyal gardener she always saw at the gardens. Azula told her that she was the longest working servant at the palace and she also had a flying cat-rabbit named Mimi. For being the longest working servant, the Fire Lord let her pet Mimi into the palace and gave her a place to stay._

_The old lady turned around and noticed Azula and instantly bowed. "Princess Azula it's an honor to have you here but this is the Fire Lord's private garden and only the Fire Lord can enter. I apologize but you must leave."_

_"That's alright I have permission from my father to come in here." Azula stated. The gardener simply bowed and went back to her work._

_The two walked to the white table and sat down on the chairs. "Why did you bring us here in the first place?" Mai asked._

_"I just thought it would be an interesting place to visit." Azula said casually._

_"Oh-AHHH!" Suddenly a flying cat-rabbit dropped down on the table right in front of Mai, scaring her so much that she fell out of the chair. Mai lay there on the grass still looking shocked and disheveled, her hair had little bits of grass stuck in them. Her eyes were wide and staring at the damn flying cat-rabbit that had the guts to still be sitting there on the table, chilling like it was an everyday thing. And now that damn creature had the guts to lick it's paws casually. Then there was Azula who was laughing hysterically. This situation could've gone worse._

_"Oh Mai! You should've seen yourself!" Azula said finally stopping her laughter._

_Mai stood up angrily glaring at the flying cat-rabbit who was still sitting there _casually_. She dusted herself off and picked on a few of the grass on her hair, still glaring at the damn creature. Azula stared at her with a smile on her face that she wanted to wipe off with knives (if she had one). Mai swore that Azula was laughing from the inside and it made her angrier._

_Suddenly, the flying cat-rabbit jumped on top of Azula's head to give itself a boost, and flew off to one of the trees. This time Azula looked angrier ever she could almost see the smoke coming off of her head. Her hair was even messier that Mai's. Mai tried to keep her laughter in and failed. Azula glared at her hard, if looks could kill she would be a burnt down human being._

_Then finally the gardener seemed to notice what her pet has done. The old woman quickly ran up to Azula to apologize about what her pet has done. _Wow, she doesn't even know what the pet did to me,_ Mai thought. But, as you should know Azula, she wasn't taking any of it so she went to a wild hunt for the poor animal._

_The the flying cat-rabbit, Mimi, seemed to be observing one of the red flowers, Mai had to admit that Mimi looked pretty peaceful not knowing her terrible fate. And at that moment Azula struck Mimi right on her sides with a thin strip of hot burning fire that opened up the skin of the poor animal revealing it's destroyed organs along with the streaming blood pouring out of its small body. A heart wrenching scream escaped from behind Mai, the old woman ran to her beloved pet and cried. It was a terrible sight to behold. Mai was extremely surprised and disgusted with her friend (who was smiling at the tragedy she has caused), and Mai was just staring at the dead animal not seeming to get her eyes off it. The old woman kept wailing and crying so loud._

_"Stop that! You look pathetic!" Azula simply yelled. Mai couldn't believe Azula would just say that! This was the first time she's ever seen Azula act like this. "Come on Mai, let's go. I don't want to stay in this stupid place anymore." Azula said it harshly and turned away leaving her no choice but to follow. This was definitely the first time she's ever seen Azula act like this, and she was hoping not to see her like that again._

* * *

Mai sighed. So this is what happened the last time she visited Azula. This experience made her change her mind about her friend. Mai never thought that Azula would do that. She knew Azula was mean and bossy sometimes, but this was insane! There was no other word for this.

She might even act different around Azula from now on. Maybe that's what happened with Aura and Azula. They did act different around each other these days. Maybe Azula killed another pet? Mai couldn't think of any other servants who were allowed pets. Or maybe they had a fight? That seemed pretty logical. 'Cause after a few days it seemed like they made a truce. Which was a good thing, /I guess.

At least these thoughts are keeping her from throwing the stupid paintbrush at the wall! /Ugh, I hate painting! Mai screamed inside her head, because you can pretty much guess what will happen if she really did it. A few strokes and she is surely gonna throw it at the wall.

Mai took a deep breath to calm herself down, but it didn't work. She really didn't care if she threw the paint brush or not. It might make her feel better. She clutched the paint brush tightly, not caring and angry, she threw the paint brush at the wall as hard as she could. She looked up and noticed that the paint brush was in the middle of where her mom planned on hanging the painting she was working on.

Mai went closer to inspect the paint brush, which was really deep into the wall. She tried pulling it out but she only managed to budge it a little. After a few shots she finally got the paint brush out but now there was a deep hole in the wall. If her parents found out, she would be in a bigger trouble.  
She decided to cover it up with the painting so Mai went over to the painting and quickly colored the blue for the lake. Now she just had to figure out how to put it up on the wall. What did the servants use again? A hammer and those nail thingies, /I think? Yes, she would have to go to the servants supply room. She can't let anyone know that. Then the servants will tell her parents what happened. Mai made her decision, so she walked out to her door and to the supply room which was two doors from the kitchen.

Mai opened the door to the supply room and quietly walked in. Luckily nobody was inside or anything. The place was a lot dingier than the rest of the house. It was a small space crammed with a lot of things. Old dusty brooms, mops, some old belongings which somehow ended up here and other things. In other words it was extremely dusty and crammed with things. She looked through the storages around the room until she finally found a hammer and the nails.

Mai quickly walked to her room. When she was there she dumped all the things on a table and took the hammer and the nail. She then walked to the wall and started hammering the approximate point for the painting to be. The nail was stuck to the wall kinda crooked but, well, it was her first time doing these things. Finally when she was done she put the painting up on the wall and stood back. She was relieved that she covered the hole and hopefully nobody will find out.

At that moment somebody knocked on the door. "Hello? Sweety? It's me. Can I come in?" Oh no! That was her mom! Mai looked down on the table where the hammer lay. She quickly grabbed it and looked for a suitable place to put it there was not enough time so she threw it under her bed. "Yes, Mother, you may enter." Mai said loudly.

Her mother slowly opened the door and looked around. "Oh, the painting is on the wall! Looks beautiful! When did you put it up?"

"Just a few minutes ago." She said with her usual act of being emotionless. "I called a servant."

"Oh, so that must've been the banging noise."

"Yes, I guess."

"Ok, just curious." Her mother said a little suspiciously and went out of her room giving a last little glance around her bedroom.

When her mother was gone Mai slumped down on her bed. /That was close, She thought. Just then an idea sparked in her mind. She walked over to the painting and took it off the wall, then she went over to the paint brushes and picked one up. She focused on a point beside the hole. She thrust her hand in front of her throwing the paint brush at the exact spot she wanted it to. Mai smirked. Finally something that was exiting! She picked up another paint brush and threw it, she did it a couple of times satisfied with herself. She took the painting and put it up on the wall covering all those holes. Then she jumped down on her bed with a smile plastered on her face. /Finally something exiting to do!

* * *

Aura and Ty Lee were having fun at Aura's house (in her bedroom to be exact.) They were making fun of school to be exacter (if that's even a word).

"Alright, what would homework stand for?" Ty Lee asked.

"Um...let's see." Aura thought for awhile. "Hours of my..."

"Evening?"

"Wasted on..."

"Random knowledge!"

"Write that down!" Aura told Ty Lee and she wrote it down on a piece of paper.

_Hours  
Of  
My  
Evening  
Wasted  
On  
Random  
Knowledge_

"Math?" Aura asked to make sure.

"Ugh, I hate math!" Ty Lee scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out to seem disgusted.

"What should it stand for?" Aura asked.

"I don't know." Ty Lee replied. The two thought for a moment. "Mental abuse to..." Ty Lee said thoughtfully.

"Humans!" Aura finished it off.

"I was gonna say that!"

"Just write it down!"

"No, you write it down! I wrote the others!"

"Fine!" Aura rolled her eyes and did as her friend told her to.

_Mental  
Abuse  
To  
Humans_

"What about studying?" Aura asked.

"You mean study." Ty Lee corrected her.

"Same thing!"

They thought for a moment until Aura said, "Study today u die young."

"But there is no Y for the you." Ty Lee noted.

"Ya, I know. But the U sounds like the word You." Aura explained.

"I guess that works."

"I'll just write it down."

"Ok."

_Study  
Today  
U  
Die  
Young_

At that moment Jia walked in without knocking on the door. "What are you doing?" Jia suddenly asked that the two girls jolted up.

"Nothing!" They said in unison.

"Ok." Jia looked at the paper that was in Aura's hand. "What are you two writing? Let me see." Jia went bent over to get the paper but Aura quickly moved it away.

"It's nothing really." Aura lied.

"Ok then. Oh, Aura! We have good news!"

"What is it?" Aura jumped up in her excitement.

"We are going on a vacation to Ember Island for two months!" Jia squealed and hugged her daughter.

"For two months?! Isn't that a bit too long?" Aura said doubtfully.

"No, school is over for the summer anyway. We are gonna have so much fun! Your father bought a beach house there. And your grandparents are coming over too! Isn't that exiting!"

"My grandparents?" Aura really puzzled right now. Never before had her 'parents' mentioned her 'grandparents'.

"Yes, from you father's side of the family."

"Oh. That's great." Aura cheered with fake enthusiasm. "When are we leaving?"

"In a week. Maybe you should start packing." Jia said and walked out of her bedroom.

"Why are you being so fake? You're going to Ember Island. You should be exited." Ty Lee blurted.

"Well...my parents never mentioned my grandparents and we are staying there for two months. We've never done that before." Aura explained slowly.

"What's wrong with that?" Ty Lee asked, not understanding why her best friend was feeling so down.

"I don't know how to explain it but I'm getting this bad vibe."

"Whatever bad vibe your getting, just ignore it. You should enjoy the trip! You know what people say about Ember Island having the most beautiful beach and especially the sunset, they say it's really romantic." Ty Lee sighed softly, thinking of the romantic view of the sunset (probably sitting with a handsome guy).

"Fine! But how are we supposed to talk? I will mis you!" Aura whined.

"We could send letters." Ty Lee suggested.

"Sure, that sounds good."

"Feeling better?" Ty Lee leaned over and hugged her friend from the side.

"Yes." Aura rolled her eyes as she patted Ty Lee's arm since she couldn't exactly hug her. They pulled part and laughed, all that forgotten.

* * *

_**A/N:** Hello My Wonderful Patient Readers! I am soooooo sorry for not updating it for so long! My only excuse is that I am a extremely lazy person in the summer. Amd you might think that I am free and I have nothing else to do since school's over (which is partly true) but I go to a day camp. I am sooooooooooooooooo sorry! I really am. The next time I will update on time! I promise!_

_But now, let's say thanks to all my reviewers. I got 31 reviews! Yay!_

_I want to say thanks to my all time favorite _**Jsaba**_ for being a good friend and always reviewing on my stories!_

**Driftingawayfromreality: **_Awwww, Thank You! You make me blush!_

**SophieNewman**_: Thanks! I like that you think that my story is original! I appreciate that._

_Thats it from last chapter. Thank You sooo much!_

_And I have an _**VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE**_ for you. There's a poll up in my profile for you guys to decide what's going to happen after Zuko gets scarred and banished. (What? You knew it was coming!) I really need you guys to vote until the chapter after the next chapter. I think by then he will get banished (after some drama of course.)_

_And the question is: How would you like the story to go when Zuko gets banished? (I guess I'll be explaining the points briefly)_

_* Aura goes with Zuko on his ship when he gets banished. (You know, the usual OC goes with Zuko story. But of course, I'm going to add my own adventures, I'm just trying to be as original as possible.)_

_*Aura stays in the Fire Nation, for now. (I have interesting things planned for you and Like I said, Aura stays in the Fire Nation and _doesn't_ go with Zuko. And of course, in the future she _will meet the Avatar no matter what.)

*Either One Is Ok. (This means that I have to pick what's gonna happen.)

If you are a Guest Reviewer, you may write which vote you want in the reviews.

Some of you might be wondering why I'm doing this. Well, what can I say? I have a lot of ideas and I have both scenarios planned out in my head. First when I started the story, I planned on making the usual OC goes with Zuko story (with a few twists and turns) but then in the middle of writing the chapters I got another idea (Which is the second option.) I didn't really know which idea to pick so right now, I decided to have a poll So that my wonderful readers could pick. I really need you guys to vote on the polls!

Anyways, enough with that! I want to say thank you to all my readers! This chapter is almost 3000 words! The longest chapter! Thank you for reading! Please review! I want to know your feedback!


	14. Ember Island

**A New Life**

**Chapter 13:**

**Ember Island**

Aura was looking out the window of the red and black palanquin which was going to take her and her parents to their Ember Island beach house. Before this they took a little boat which took us to this place. Surprisingly she enjoyed the sea, it's smell, it's beautiful waters and some of the sea creatures she saw from the surface.

But right now she was at the boring part of her journey and her parents were sitting across from her talking about the things they planned on doing, but the strange thing was that they didn't mention her grandparents, yet. It's as if they didn't really wish to see them. She shrugged inwardly. It seemed like her parents were talking about teaching her how to swim, which was a good idea.

She thought back to her good-bye with Ty Lee. She was going to miss her bestfriend. Even if Ty Lee tended to be annoying sometimes, she would be a much better company than her parents and her grandparents who she didn't know anything about. Agni! Even Mai would be better, who was pretty emotionless with their good-bye (like always) and Azula, well...she was ok, she said to have fun but Aura couldn't get over the feeling that Azula didn't really care. Which was upsetting.

Aura decided to look out the window, at least it's better than thinking about these negative thoughts. Aura sighed and leaned in towards the window. The only thing she saw was sand, yes she was facing the sea, but it wasn't as exiting as when she was on the boat. She saw another beach house pass by, this indcated that they were almost at their own beach house.

But for now she decided on focusing on the conversation her parents were having. But it seemed like they noticed that we are almost there.

"Oh, look sweetie. We're almost here!" Her mother was saying looking out the window.

"Oh yes. Aura dear, are you exited?" Hong asked giving her a half smile.

"Sure dad, seems like a nice place." Aura smiled back. Then the rest of the ride, the family looked out the window trying to figure out which one would be theirs. Then after a couple of minutes the palanquin pulled up. The driver himself got off and opened the door while Aura and her parents walked out.

This is it, this was where they would stay for two months. The beach house, it was big with two floors, extending a lot to the back. It was all red, like anything else in the Fire Nation. There was a porch in front with a small white table and two chairs. Her grandparents must already be here. They walked up the stairs to the door and knocked. A tired looking servants opened the door and gave them a welcoming smile.

They walked in and the servant brought them to the living room and made them sit on the plush red sofa. They waited and after a couple of minutes two elderly people, a man and woman, walked in while holding onto each other. Both of them were wrinkly but the man's hair was greyer than the woman's. They both had amber eyes but the woman's eyes were lighter. The woman wore a simple red robe that was loose fitting and the man wore brown pants along with a red shirt with intricate golden designs from the bottom. The man had a permanent scowl on his face unlike the woman who was smiling.

"My little Hongy! It's so good to see you!" Aura snickered at the nickname while the woman slowly walked to her father and embraced him.

"Yes mother. I am very happy to see you too. And please don't call me that." Hong pleaded from her mother's tight embrace.

"Of course not, my little Hongy." Her 'grandmother' kissed 'Hongy' on the forehead as he gave a frustrated sigh.

"Oh, Jia! It's very nice to see you!" Grandmother hugged her mom too.

"It's nice to see you Hong." Her grandfather came up and embraced his son still having a permanent scowl on his face. "It's nice to see you too Jia." They shook hands.

"And this must be Aura. The one you were talking about." Grandfather noted.

"Yes." Hong replied to that.

"Nice to finally meet you." Grandfather nodded towards her.

Unlike him, grandmother came and hugged her tightly, knocking the air out of her. Aura never knew old people could be this strong. "That's great!" Grandmother was saying excitedly.

"It's nice to see you too." Aura said. After that, they all talked, but it was mostly her grandparents asking mom and dad about their life.

Aura went to her bedroom and her parents went into the one right beside her. She went over to the window. The view was great! It was the sunset that amazed her the most, with the orange and yellow hue of the sun that tinted the skies. But part of the sky was already becoming dark. Which made her sad, she wished that the sky would be this beautiful all the time.

She turned back from the view to observe her room. It seems like her stuff was unpacked (probably by the servants) and put neatly in the closets. She decided to change her clothes. She looked around the closet and found a new red silk dress that she was sure she didn't bring (or even owned).

She studied it carefully. There wasn't much of a design except by the collars and the waist part. It was simple but pretty. She liked it. Maybe it was a gift from her grandparents? Who knows?

Right then a knock sounded on the door and an old woman's voice said, "Its me, your grandmother. Aura? May I come in?"

"Of course you may." Aura called back.

Her grandmother opened the door and slowly walked in, towards her. The old woman's eyes lit up at the sight of the dress. "So, you've seen the dress already. It's a gift from your grandfather and I. Hope you like it!" Grandmother smiled genuinely with her eyes crinkling up. "I-we weren't sure about your size. If it doesn't fit, just tell the servants and they'll fix it for you."

"Thank you!" Aura smiled gratefully.

"You should get ready, sweetie. The dinner is in a few minutes."

Aura nodded at her grandmother and waved a small goodbye while she was leaving the room.

* * *

Aura walked down the stairs to the dining room. She decided to wear the dress her grandmother gave her. It fit her just fine, showing off her curves to make her body look better. It was beautiful! To go along with the dress, she wore a golden bracelet with red gems making an intricate dragon design around her wrist and a red sandal which will be covered by the dress anyway. To finish it off, she decided to make her hair into a half ponytail, taking the hairs on top of her head and tying it behind while the rest falls loosely on her shoulders.

When she entered the dining room she already saw her grandparents sitting on the the chairs. There was already food on the plates and they seemed to be waiting for her and her parents.

Her grandmother's eyes lit up when she saw Aura walk in. "Aura, sweetie, come over here and sit down beside me." Her grandmother patted the seat next to her and Aura walked right up and sat down.

She stared at the delicious looking meal that was in front of her, there were platters filled with everything from each food group. Aura couldn't wait to dive in! But she still had to wait for her parents to arrive and she couldn't gauge it all in at once or else it would be unladylike and she would be scolded for doing so.

Finally, after awhile her parents came in and sat on the chairs across from her. They greeted each other and started eating in an awkward silence. Aura took to herself to try and eat almost everything on the table.

Finally the silence was broken when her grandfather said, "So, Aura, how is school?"

Aura felt like rolling her eyes. _Why do adults always ask that question?_ "It was good." She answered.

"What marks do you get?"

"I get A's all the time."

"So, I heard that you are a pretty good fire bender." Her grandfather said awkwardly.

"Yes I am." She said as she thought, _Stop asking me so many questions!_

"Alright, so, let me try to guess about your personality." He put his pointer fingers to his temple and tried to pretend like he was physic. "You like the color red!"

"Yup, I like red and pink." She giggled at her grandfathers failed attempt at guessing her favorite color.

"My next guess is that you like to read!"

"Yes I do like to read." By then everybody was smiling at the little game her grandfather was playing with her. He was fun for a man who scowls a lot.

"Since you are still eleven-"

"I'm turning twelve in three months."

"That's great! And your parents say that you are really good firebender. I'm guessing that you are in you fifth level of your firebending practice."

"No, I'm on my tenth level." That surprised her grandparents, most people her age would still be doing their fourth or fifth level of firebending but since she was really good, she quickly rose up to the higher levels of firebending with the older kids. Her grandfather gave her an impressed look.

"That's impressive." Her grandmother grinned.

"Thank you." Aura said.

"So, let's continue." Her grandfather cut In. "You look like you are a very social person, so I'm guessing you have a lot of friends."

"No, just three. Well, I talk to a lot of people, but I just have three friends." _Plus a crush who thinks of me as a friend_, she thought.

"Who might your friends be?"

Aura thought for a second. She didn't feel comfortable telling them that Azula was her friend. Who's to say that they wouldn't act like anybody else who knew? She grinned and told them anyway, "Princess Azula, Mai and Ty Lee."

"Wait, did you just say that Princess Azula is your friend? The Fire Lord's daughter?" Now her grandparents were bewildered.

"Yes." Aura blinked her eyes and gave them her most innocent look.

"That's . . . nice." They stuttered.

By the time the conversation was done, everybody was finishing up their food. Aura quickly went to her bedroom and changed into a nightgown. She went through her routine of getting ready to sleep, which included reading a story. She took out her favorite book, which was a collection of legends from every nation. These books were very hard to find, since the Fire Lord got rid of almost every book that included something from the other nations (especially the ones that could create a rebellion, don't ask why).

Aura decided to read the story about Oma and Shu, one of her favorites. This story really showed the personality of the Earth Kingdom citizens and the unbreakable love between Oma and Shu (she sometimes dreamed of loving Zuko that way). As she came to the end of the story, the fire on her lantern started to fade until she was fully asleep.

* * *

The next couple of weeks were great! They got to go explore Ember Island and its wonders that she's been waiting to see for as long as she could remember. They went to a play one night, to see Love Amongst Dragons, the greatest Fire Nation tale that has been reenacted all over the Fire Nation. Aura has seen the play many times in the Capitol but she's heard that the one in Ember Island was the greatest one.

They went to the beach almost everyday and Aura got to learn how to swim. Her first trial was a fail but one thing she's learned from Azula is that everything you do has to be your best try. So in a couple of days she's gotten pretty good at swimming.

Even with all of those, there's one bad one that stuck out the most. One day at night, it's been an hour since her parents and grandparents retreated into their rooms after dinner. Aura was walking down the hall since she couldn't sleep. She heard arguments when she passed by her grandparent's room. Out of curiosity stuck her ears to the door to listen in.

"I knew it was a bad idea to let that woman marry our son!" She heard her grandfather loudly banging the table.

"Sweetie, relax-" Her grandmother said calmly.

"No! I will not relax! That woman can't even have her own child! They had to adopt. I told him to marry that other girl, she would've given him more power to rise above the ranks. Now he is some minor government official!" Her grandfather shouted but she heard her grandmother quieting him down.

"It was for love, sweetie. You should know by now that love is powerful."

"Whatever! And did you see that girl they adopted? That girls trouble, I'm telling. I can see it through her innocent act. Trust me, one day she will betray us."

"Go to sleep already. You are getting really paranoid." Her grandmother said soothingly against his protests. After a short while she heard the heavy snoring of the old man.

Aura slowly moved away from the door and started toward her room, thinking aboutwhat just happend. _My grandparents hate me, she thought. They hate me!_ She couldn't believe it! Aura thought that they would like her even if she was adopted. She thought she impressed them enough to make them like her. _But I guess it didn't work out_.

Aura walked into her bedroom, tucking herself into bed. She thought about it a little more and decided to take action by doing whatever she could to improve herself. Unfortunately, it is not possible in Ember Island, she would have to wait until she went home. Hopefully they would hear of her accomplishments from the Capitol.

* * *

**I am so sorry for not updating for almost a year! I will try to update more often, but I can't promise you anything. Sorry! Hopefully the long chapter will make up for this.**

**Next chapter will be the one where Zuko gets his scar. Let's hope that I will finish it in time. But for now, read and review! Thanks!**


	15. Agni Kai

**A New Life**

**Chapter 14:**

**Agni Kai**

_A Year Later . . ._

Aura and Ty Lee walked over to the new couple who were kissing in the hall. Aura rolled her eyes at them and started clearing her throat very loudly.

Mai and Zuko were startled out of their little lovey-dovey moment. "I - I'm sorry, I guess you have to go now." Zuko said awkwardly while becoming very red. _He looks so cute when he's blushing. Too bad he's not mine._ Aura thought bitterly. Zuko stalked off right after giving Mai another peck on the lips.

It has been a year since Aura's been to Ember Island to visit her grandparents, and since then she's been determined to prove them wrong. Everyday she has been working extra hours to improve her firebending to perfection. In a couple months she's been moved up three levels, beating every single pupil her firebending master had. She had also been studying extra hard, making sure that she got a perfect on every single test. She made sure that she would be on top of her classmates (obviously she can never surpass Princess Azula). She had also won multiple awards in the span of a year, which was truly an improvement.

Then Aura had also noticed people talking about her, mostly because she was adopted. They would be making strange rumors about adopted children. Most of them didn't even make sense! She was surprised that she never caught anyone talking behind her back before.

Right after coming back from Ember Island, Aura also found out that Zuko and Mai were dating. According to Ty Lee, the couple confessed to each other that they had a huge crush and immediately became a couple. Which sucks! Especially for her since she'd been working so hard on becoming friends with Zuko and then there's just Mai who can go up to him and say that she likes him. But Aura had to admit, they were a pretty good couple and it seemed like they would never leave each other's side. But she was still jealous and she didn't think that she will get over it quickly. At least Zuko would come over to hang out with them more often and she is helping him with firebending.

There were some good things that happened in the past year, like that fact that Mai can throw knives and learn how to use weapons. In the beginning when Mai told them that she liked to wield weapons, her parents disapproved of her doing something a delicate young lady wouldn't do. Luckily for her, Princess Azula stepped in and convinced Mai's parents that it was a great idea. And of course, like anybody else, her parents agreed and encouraged Mai to improve her knife throwing skills.

Then there was Ty Lee, who finally got to properly learn how to chi block (which has always been an interest of hers). Azula somehow got a couple scrolls for Ty Lee about chi blocking and she was more than excited to master the art.

Aura pushed those thoughts aside and listened to Ty Lee teasing Mai about her relationship. Aura would rather want Ty Lee to stop teasing Mai (it just hurts and reminds her that she didn't get Zuko first) but this was Ty Lee she was talking about, and her best friend would never Ever stop teasing about a relationship.

"Finally, it took you guys long enough!" Azula walked up to them looking pretty annoyed.

"Sorry Azula, but we had a little incident with Mai and Zuko." Ty Lee said while giving Mai a teasing look. Mai kept playing with her knife, not even acknowledging that remark.

Azula rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come on, Let's go." She gestured to them to come over to her room.

The day went as usual, with the four girls gossiping about the nobles and showing off their skills, just like every weekend. Until Ty Lee mentioned that she was joining the circus.

"Why would you join the circus?" Mai asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"Yeah, why would you join the circus? You are a noble who goes to the most prestigious school in the Fire Nation, circuses are for peasants! Not you. And by the way I'd expect you to have a better job than this." Azula criticized her friend while Ty Lee's features were saddening.

"Because, it'll be fun! I can finally go somewhere new and be different from my sisters." Ty Lee explained.

"Surely your parents are not happy with this." Azula indicated with a fake concerned look.

"No, they didn't really care." Ty Lee waved off her concern.

"Ty Lee, don't be let down by them. You should go to the circus and do something different. It'll be a great get away!" Aura said encouragingly while putting her arms around her best friend's shoulder. Aura knew how similar Ty Lee and her sister's features were. If all of them were the same age, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart and like Ty Lee always said, 'I don't want to be part of a matched set'.

"Thanks Aura." Ty Lee smiled and hugged her back.

"So when are you leaving?" Azula asked.

"Huh?"

"I said, when are you leaving for the circus?"

"In three months."

"Hope you actually have fun." Azula said with sarcasm heavily dripping from her voice.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Later in the afternoon Azula hid behind a pole listening to Zuzu's pathetic attempt at convincing to the guards let him inside the war room. After a while, Iroh came by and took him aside. Unfortunately they were out of earshot so Azula couldn't hear, but by the looks of it, Iroh agreed to let Zuko go to the meeting. They walked in and this time the guards didn't block them from going in.

Azula stepped to the side and pushed a certain spot in the wall, which opened up to a secret passage to the war room. She slipped inside and watched the meeting from a small hole in the wall. Zuko really should've gone exploring with her more often when they were younger, then he wouldn't need people's permission to listen to the meetings, and instead sneak in like she's been doing now forever.

After an half-an-hour of boring war strategies, Azula could tell that Zuko was about to fall asleep but he tried to be alert by putting on a calm expression on his face. Right then a general stood up addressing the Firelord and the other generals in the room.

"The Earth Kingdom Defenses are concentrated here." The General pointed at a spot on the map. "The dangerous battalion of their strongest Earth Benders and fiercest warriors. So I am recommending the Forty-First Division." He finished off as he moved the Fire Nation figure towards the Earth Kingdom figures.

"But the Forty-First Division is entirely new recruits. How do you expect them to defeat a powerful Earth Kingdom Battalion?" Another general with a long beard interrupted.

"I don't. They'll be used as a distraction while we mount an attack from the rear. What better to use as bait than fresh meat?" The general said with delight.

At that exact moment Prince Zuko stood up and shouted, "You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation. How can you betray them?" Zuko has spoken out of turn and was getting stared down by a dozen angry looking generals.

Azula smirked, she's seen enough. This kind of disrespect can only be justified by an Agni Kai. By tomorrow everybody will know about it. She walked away as she thought of the humiliation Zuko will get right after the Agni Kai.

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"Hey Aura! Did you hear the news?" Ty Lee asked as she sat down on the sofa at her friend's house. Ty Lee came over to have some quality time with her friend the next day, right after school.

"What news?"

"Zuko is going to be in an Agni Kai."

_That can't be good._ "With who?"

"The Firelord." Ty Lee said carefully not wanting to worry her friend.

Dread settling over her as Aura looked at her best friend's worried expression. "Why would the Firelord duel his own son?"

"Because, Zuko spoke out of turn in a war meeting. By doing so, he was challenging a general's plan to over throw the Earth Kingdom and it was in the Firelord's war room, so he disrespected the Firelord even more." Ty Lee explained watching her best friend carefully.

Her breath hitched up. "That's really bad." There was no way he could actually win against the Firelord. She was not willing to dwell on the thought, so she settled for a question instead. "When is the Agni Kai?"

"In two days, at sundown." Ty Lee answered.

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The next day, Aura walked down the hall of the palace to the training grounds. There she saw Zuko furiously throwing fireballs at a dummie. Aura leaned over the wall watching him until finally he noticed her staring.

"Finally! I'm glad you could come over. You must be wondering why I summoned you here and-"

"Actually I know why you 'summoned' me here." Aura joked while making air quotes at the word 'summoned'.

"Ha ha ha, very funny. I was just trying to be professional." Zuko defended.

Aura rolled her eyes as she walked towards him.

"Anyway, so are you going to help me with my firebending for the Agni Kai, or not? My oncle's busy today so I called you over."

"Of course I will! What did you think?" Aura said with a mock offended expression.

"Good"

And so they began.

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Azula was the first one to walk into the arena along with her failure of an uncle. She sat right at the front row, willing to see the action first-hand along with Iroh, who sat right beside her. They sat there silently, side by side, while more people started milling in, mostly important people, like generals and the Firelord's ministers along with a couple nobles.

When the arena was almost full, Iroh spoke up to his niece, "So, Azula, how do you feel about seeing your brother battle the general?"

"What general, uncle?" Azula asked innocently. "Didn't you know? He is battling the Firelord."

Azula took delight in watching Iroh's calm expression becoming one of shock. But he quickly collected himself, acting as calm and calculated as he could.

_At first he was a failure, and now he's becoming ignorant. What more can I expect from a tea-loving-crook? But then again, if Iroh didn't know, then Zuko didn't either. This is going to be interesting. _Azula thought to herself.

When the arena was completely full, the two contestants got ready, putting on a drape around their shoulders, kneeling down facing their backs at each other. The gong sounded, the prince and the Firelord stood up confidently, turning to meet each other while their drape fluttered down to the ground beside them.

Zuko dropped his fighting stance, with an expression of utter bewilderment when he saw who he was facing. He dropped to his knees in front of his father, begging for his mercy.

"Please Father, I only had the Fire Nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn."

"You will fight for your honor." Ozai's voice boomed while he was towering over his son.

"I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son." Zuko begged looking really afraid.

"Rise and fight, Prince Zuko." Ozai demanded.

"I won't fight you." Zuko said forcefully, tears streaming down his eyes.

"You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher."

Zuko slowly looked up to find a fireball directly aiming for his face. Azula watched in delight as the fire ate away at his skin while an ear shattering scream filled the arena.

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Aura sat in front of the table, taking in the news. "Do you think he's ok?" Aura asked, the concern written all over her face.

"Well, I heard that he's still unconscious. But he'll be fine, except for the scar." Ty Lee said reassuringly.

"Oh, anything else?"

"They are banishing him." Ty Lee said, going straight to the point. Sometimes Aura wished that her friend wasn't so blunt.

"Ok" Aura nodded, letting the tears blur her vision. She leaned in on her friend and let Ty Lee's reassuring words sooth her aching heart.

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_A Week Later . . . _

Aura knocked on the door to Zuko's chamber, where he's been unconscious for the past week. She had hoped to visit him sooner, but the guards wouldn't let her pass last week, but now since Zuko was conscious, they were more open to visitors.

"Who's there?" Zuko shouted from the room.

"It's me, Aura."

After a long pause, she heard her answer, "Come in."

Aura opened the door as she walked in to find Zuko sitting on his bed, with a bandage covering his right eye. Her heart broke into tiny fragile pieces, seeing Zuko so destroyed.

She tried to ignore the scar and instead put on a smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good." Zuko replied. "My own father disfigured and banished me to go find the avatar. Who by the way, wasn't found in over a hundred years. Things couldn't get any worse."

"It's ok, you'll find. Don't worry." Aura lied reassuringly.

With her words, she saw the hope flash through his eyes. "You know what? You are right. I shouldn't worry. I will find the avatar and bring back my honor." Zuko said to himself with pride.

After that, they talked about something other than Zuko's scar and banishment. When they were done, Aura walked out of the door, worrying for Zuko. When she turned the corner, she was too deep in thought to notice the Dragon of the West walking right up to her and bumping into each other, which startled her to reality.

She widened her eyes and started apologizing nervously, "I'm so sorry. I didn't see you there. I mean, it was my fault. I am so so so sorry, General Iroh." She did a awkward little bow.

Iroh chuckled at her clumsiness, "It's alright. I was just about to go and visit my nephew. What is your name?"

"My name is Aura."

"Ahh, aren't you the girl Zuko always talks about? The one who practices firebending with him?"

"Yup, that's me!" Her heart fluttered at the fact that Zuko talks about her.

"My nephew really appreciates your help. He considers you a really good friend." Iroh commented.

"Um, thank you." Aura blushed feeling embarrassed but happy at the fact that Zuko considers her a really good friend.

"I have a feeling you have a crush on him."

"Wait, What?" Aura said alarmed at the prospect of him knowing. "Nooooo, of course not! Why would I have a crush on him? Like, Really?" She laughed nervously.

"Alright." Iroh walked away with a satisfied smile, leaving a very confused Aura in the hallway.

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The next day, in the morning, Azula walked happily up to her brother's chamber, holding a scroll from the Firelord about the orders. She knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for the answer. She saw Zuko coming up to the door, looking pretty bad.

She smirked at him. "Hello, Zuzu."

"What are you doing here, Azula?" Zuko demanded, angrily.

"I thought I'd help my dear brother pack." Azula casually strolled to a table to put down the scroll. "I wouldn't want you to forget anything important. After all, who knows how long you'll be gone."

Zuko came up to her and snatched the scroll away from her hand. "I'll be back as soon as I find the Avatar. Then he'll . . ."

"The guards will be here in an hour. Better finish packing." She interrupted him while casually walking out of the room, leaving Zuko alone with his thoughts.

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Aura watched as Zuko's boat got ready to sail. Beside her were, Ty Lee and Mai, who also came by to say good-bye to Zuko.

Zuko stood there, at the railing, looking at them. Aura, along with Ty Lee and Mai, waved at him as the ship moved farther away from them.

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**Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I made Aura stay in the Fire Nation, for now. Like you guys voted for in the poll. Don't worry though, she will meet up with Zuko in the near future.**

**I know I haven't been updating this story for a year -and I'm really sorry about it- but I really want to know your opinions on the story. If there's someting you want me to include or if there's something I need to fix, you can tell me in the reviews. Please? I really want to know how well I'm doing with this story.**

**And I would really like to thank Digi-fanCatt for reviewing last chapter. And I would also like to thank everyone for reading this story. Thank You!**


	16. Surprise

**A New Life **

**Chapter 15:**

**Surprise**

Aura leaned in on her bed, reading a book. She has locked herself in her room, well, the door was just closed, not locked, but she's been in there for three days, not willing to come out. Which was strange, considering the fact that she always goes outside, no matter what. But this time, she was too depressed to do anything, other than reading a book, eating, sleeping or breathing. Why would Aura be depressed? You might be wondering. Well it is because of Zuko. Of him getting banished and leaving her heartbroken.

Her parents were getting really worried, they'd never expected her to behave like she's been doing for the past three days. They checked up on her almost every hour, asking her why she was acting this way (as if she's going to tell them) or telling her to go outside and do something productive. And each time they were rejected.

Ty Lee came to see Aura every day. She would say encouraging words to get her out of bed. But after awhile she would give up and talk about her day or some new gossip that's been going around. Which would always make her smile.

Aura was drawn out of her thoughts by a knock on the door. Ty Lee's smiling face peeked through the doorway, keeping it slightly ajar. When she saw her friend, she swung the door open, loudly. She skipped over to the bed, cheerful as usual. Ty Lee shrieked and jumped back. "Whoa, what happened to your face? It looks like a badger-mole stomped all over you!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aura blurted out, not understanding the metaphor.

"It means, that you look really bad."

"Wow, thanks Ty Lee. You are such a good friend." Aura commented sarcasm heavily dripping from her voice.

"Aww, thanks!" Ty Lee fluttered her eyelashes playfully. "Anyways, get up!"

"Ouch! Harsh! Even for you."

"Get up!" By now Ty Lee was tugging at her arm, almost managing to get a struggling Aura out of bed. Finally, she gave up and thought of a new tactic. "I know you are still upset that Zuko left, but you can't keep doing this. You'll eventually get over him, trust me."

"Whatever!" Aura breathed.

By then Ty Lee got really frustrated, which most people would say was impossible with her over cheerfulness. But this time it was her friend she was talking about. Ty Lee thought of something else to say and remembered why she came here in the first place. "Did you get the message from Azula? We are having the meet-up again."

"Um, no." Aura flicked away the question carelessly. "Why does she want to meet up with us almost everyday anyway? What's the point of it?"

"I don't know, but you know how mad she will get if you miss it." Ty Lee explained with fear flashing in her eyes.

Yes, Aura did know what would happen and its best not to dismiss the meeting. She sighed and got up, lousily walking to her closet. Ty Lee grabbed her shoulder and stopped her from her slow descent. "First you should go and check yourself in the mirror."

Aura rolled her eyes but did as she was told. She stood in front of her mirror slowly looking up to meet her reflection. What she saw surprised her a great deal. Her eyes were sunken, her cheeks were deepened and her hair was a mess. Overall, she looked tired and, well, she looked like a person who hasn't been outside for three days and a person who was trying to make themselves even more depressed.

"See what I mean?" Ty Lee stood there, crossing her arms. "You need a makeover."

"No, I don't. I can just comb my hair and put on some light make-up." Aura dismissed the suggestion.

"Whoa! You're actually going to wear make-up? I thought you hated make-up!" Ty said bewildered, not used to seeing her friend wear make-up somewhere other than a special occasion.

"Kind of, but this is an emergency situation."

Ty Lee nodded and for the next fifteen minutes, they spent the time trying to straighten out Aura's hair. It was really difficult to comb a hair that hasn't been combed in three days and was filled with knots.

"Ouch!" Aura shrieked as Ty Lee pulled another strand of knotted hair.

"Sorry!" Ty Lee apologized.

"At this rate we might be late to Azula's meet-up! Let me do it, give me the comb!" Aura angrily snatched the comb away from her friend. When she looked at Ty Lee, she saw an emotion pass through her eyes, but she couldn't tell what it was._ Was it sadness? Anger? Can't tell._ But right now she had to focus on the task at hand, which was to comb her hair.

After another fifteen minutes, she was done, so then she went to her closet and got dressed. She picked out her favorite red dress, along with red tights and her favorite boots. Then did a light make-up as she said before. She was about to get out of her room with her friend, but Ty Lee stopped her with a question. "Aren't you going to do a ponytail, or something?"

"No." Aura answered matter-of-factly.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't feel like it."

"But you always do a ponytail, or you at least do something with your hair."

"Well, this time I wanna keep it down." Aura said frustration written all over her face. "Come on!" She beckoned.

Ty Lee followed her out of the house, past the surprised forms of Aura's parents. The two friends were walking silently, until Ty Lee spoke half-way to the palace. "Sooo, what's up?" She said awkwardly, trying to make a conversation happen.

"You know what's up." Aura said harshly.

At that, Ty Lee abruptly stopped, seething angrily. Aura turned around to see Ty Lee glowering at her. She had never seen her friend so angry before.

"You have been acting like an asshole this past couple of days!" Ty Lee yelled in her face, jabbing at Aura at each word. "I mean . . . Ugh! How could you treat me like this? All I've been trying to do was help you! And all you do is talk harshly to me and everyone around you! I mean, your aura has been the darkest I've ever seen. And just because your upset, doesn't mean you can treat everyone around you like that! You are a jerk!"

Aura looked at her surprised and scared at the same time and it seems like Ty Lee was surprised by her words too. Ty Lee instantly regretted yelling at her friend like that. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

Aura's gaze softened, smiling sadly, realizing for the first time that the way she's been treating people did sadden everyone around her. "No, you're not the one who should apologize, I am. You are right, I've been treating you badly and I regret it, a lot. And I guess I've been acting like an asshole and a jerk for the past three days. I'm sorry, for everything." Aura apologized.

"It's ok, I just don't want to see you so depressed for the two months I'll be staying. I want to see a happy friend before I leave for the circus. You know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." They embraced each other, everything forgiven, and silently agreeing to not bring this up again. After that they walked to the palace, happily talking to each other.

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Aura stood there, watching Azula burn a rose bush. When she first became friends with Azula, she would tell her to stop hurting nature, but now she knew better than to question the Princesse's actions. She looked over at Ty Lee, who stood there, horrified. Then she looked over at Mai, who - as usual - put on a bored expression.

She heard a shriek not far off from the garden. Everyone turned over to the noise to see a very horrified and hurt gardener. The gardener ran away to the insides of the palace.

Azula shrugged. "What's his problem? It was ugly anyway."

"I thought it was pretty." Ty Lee beamed.

"No, it's not." Azula glowered at her.

"Ok, it's not." Ty Lee cowered in front of her gaze.

Aura came to her friend's defense. "I thought it was pretty, too. The gardener did a pretty good job with the rose bush."

"'A Pretty Good Job' isn't enough. It has to be perfect."

"Well, I think it looks as perfect as it can be." Mai cut in, which surprised everyone, since she never expresses her opinion. That also shut Azula up, knowing that there's no point in arguing about a dumb rose bush.

The meet-up went as usual, all of them talking and showing off their skills. After that they would go back home. The next day Aura would wake up and go to school. When she gets home she would do her homework or practice firebending or hang out with her friends. Then in the weekends she would go to the meet-up with Azula, Mai and Ty Lee. That's basically how her day went for the next two months, with the same boring old routine. At least she forgot all about Zuko, not even mentioning him once. Except for those flashes of memories she'd get once in awhile about the things she and Zuko did, but she'd dismiss it immediately.

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After the two months of the same boring old routine, it was finally time for Ty Lee to leave and join the circus. Aura and Mai walked her to the circus ground. Azula didn't come along, saying something about circuses not being her type of place but she did say her good-byes early on.

By then, Aura could see a huge colorful tent set up, where the circus performances would take place. Around it were several smaller tents, which were probably for the circus performers. Ty Lee stopped and regarded the circus grounds. She sighed softly and said, "This is it!"

"Yup!" Aura beamed.

Ty Lee let out a long breath. "I'm a little nervous! But also happy!" Ty Lee smiled happily.

"Well, go on in there." Mai encouraged actually having a small smile on her face.

"Ok, I'm going to miss you guys so so soooo much!" Ty Lee embraced them tightly.

Aura returned the hug saying, "Me too. I'm going to miss you so much!"

"I though I'd never say this, but I'm going to miss you too." Mai said genuinely."But the most important thing is to have fun."

"Yeah, thanks." Ty Lee said as she walked away from the two, waving at them.

"Have fun!" Aura called out while waving back at her friend. Yup, she was sure going to miss her best friend, the one she's known since coming to this new world.

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After Ty Lee leaving, everything seems to be different. Azula acted meaner than usual and Mai was . . . well . . . duller. _I guess Ty Lee was the one who could keep everybody happy. _Yes, without Ty Lee there was no way anybody could be cheerful, even Mai would sometimes smile when she's around. Other than that Aura's life got really boring, without Ty Lee bursting into her room every now and then, chattering about, well . . . everything. It was a really big life-changer for her.

At first she didn't know what to do with her spare time, that would be when she spent the time with Ty Lee. After awhile she's learnt to just take a walk around a park, and just appreciate nature. Then on weekdays she would go to school or to her firebending practice and on the weekends she would hang out with Azula and Mai (which was getting worse day by day). That's how she spent the time for the next four months.

One day she was pulled out of her routine when Azula came over to her house. Don't ask why, Aura didn't know the answer, yet. She just came out of nowhere, just coming up to her door and knocking on it. A servant rushed down to open the door, to find the Fire Princess standing there, the Princess asked for her, Aura, so the servant quickly let the Princess in and called for her.

Aura walked to the front door wondering why Azula would come, uninformed, it wasn't like her to do that, unless there's something urgent. She went to the front door to find a smiling Azula standing there waiting for her. Which is weird, since Azula never really smiles. "Hey" Azula said casually.

"Hi, so, um, what are you doing here, Azula?" Aura asked nervously.

"I just decided to drop by since I don't have anything to do right now."

"Oh, ok, sure. Do you wanna come over to my room?"

"Yes, of course, I can't stand here on your doorstep all day."

"Right, sorry. Come on." Aura beckoned. "Let's go to my room."

Azula followed her up the stairs as Aura kept talking. "My parents are out right now, so it's just you and me at my house, except for the servants."

"That's nice, I guess." Azula said while walking into the room. Aura offered her a chair to sit down.

"Should I get you some snacks? Tea? Biscuits? Anything?"

"That will be nice."

"Ok, be right back." Aura walked out of the room, going to the kitchen. She told a servant to make two cups of tea and biscuits. After a couple minutes, a tray of tea and biscuits were ready and Aura headed upstairs.

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Azula smirked as Aura walked out of the room to get some snacks. She didn't tell Aura why she really came here, but she will after her friend comes back. Azula was planning on telling Aura that she knows that she is from another world and also warn her of the things she is not allowed to do for someone who is from the other world. She just needed to put some fear into her friend, since Aura wasn't exactly being very obedient.

Azula wasn't supposed to know about the other world, but she had her way of finding things out eventually. If anybody else knew that Azula had found out about the other world (especially her father), she would be the one in trouble. But Aura feared her enough to not say anything, especially after today.

Azula sweeped through the room, looking for something unusual. She tried to look everywhere in just a minute, but didn't find anything. She paused and thought for a second. An idea popped into her head and so she crouched down low to look under the bed. She looked carefully but didn't find anything, she looked over it again and this time she noticed something stuck on the bottom of the bed. She reached out, grabbing it with one arm and when she stood up, she noticed that it was a small wooden box, about the size of her fist. The box looked like it hadn't been touched for a really long time. Azula dusted the box and sneezed as the dust tickled her nose.

There wasn't anything significant about the box but there must be something inside that's worth hiding. Curiously, she opened the box to find a golden colored, heart-shaped locket. The locket was of a cheaper quality than she was used to, it was just plain metal painted gold. Other than that, she observed the locket and noticed that it wasn't something you'd see around the Fire Nation or anywhere in this world. There was this feeling, like the locket didn't belong, she couldn't think of a better explanation for the feeling. She traced her fingers through it, getting rid of the dust. She noticed a word written on the locket, _Crystal_.

_Why would Aura have a strange locket with the word Crystal written on it? _Azula thought. Normally people put their name on a locket, not a gem's name. _Unless, it was a name in the other world._ That's the last hint she needed to know for sure that the locket is from the other world. She remembered one of the rules people like Aura were to follow, it was to _not have any belongings from the other world._ _Aura broke a rule!_ By breaking this rule, she will have to be executed. Azula smirked to herself, thinking of what Aura has gotten herself into.

Azula was about to open the locket when Aura walked in with a tray of tea and biscuits. She quickly put it in her pocket and turned around, wearing a innocent looking smile on her face.

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Aura walked back in the room with the tray of tea and biscuits. She hurriedly set it down on a nearby table. She gestured to a smiling Azula to come and sit down on a chair. Aura sat across from Azula, taking her teacup and sipping on it. "So, what's up?" She asked casually.

"Nothing much really." Azula took her own teacup and sipped from it. "Except, did you ever break a rule?"

"Not really, no." Aura spoke confidently.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Don't lie to me!" Azula shouted.

"I'm not lying!" Aura shouted back.

"Fine, if you say so." Azula shrugged, taking another sip from the teacup. "Did you know that there is another world that's completely different from ours?"

"No, I didn't." Aura said as calmly as she could. She had forgotten all about the other world, the world she was born in. This was a reminder of where she was actually from. But how did Azula find out? Only the Firelord and his most trusted advisors know about it. Azula can only know about this when she becomes Firelord herself. How did she find out? _Did I say anything?_ Aura thought as she panicked inwardly.

"Are you sure?" Azula smirked as she took out a very familiar looking locket. "Since I found this, I thought you were from that other world." Aura stared at the locket. _That was her locket! _The one Aura's parents gave her a long time ago. She had forgotten all about it, but now that she saw it, everything seemed to freeze in front of her. She looked at the locket and at the bottom of her bed, there she saw the wooden box she's put it in all those years ago, just peeking out of the base of her bed. Then she looked at Azula's smirking face, fear getting the better of her.

"Thought so." Azula stood up, looking pretty satisfied with her discovery.

"Please, Azula. Don't tell on me." Aura begged going down on her knees. She knew that this was a futile attempt, but it was still worth a try. "Please, I'm your friend. If you were in this situation, I wouldn't tell on you. Please? I will get rid of it as soon as possible, I promise."

"Promises aren't enough, and you've brought this on yourself. You should have gotten rid of it as soon as possible. But you didn't and now you will be executed." Azula retorted. "I will call the guards, you know, I always have a couple with me."

"Please." Aura begged as she watched Azula walk over to the window to call the guards, that accompanied her here. Before Azula could do anything, Aura quickly ran to her and stabbed her on the weak points in her body. Azula limply fell down like a doll, losing control over her body.

"You chi blocked me!" Azula said bewildered. "How dare you!"

_Phew, the lessons have payed off, even if I was forced to learn it by Ty Lee. _Aura thought relieved at taking a few forced lessons by Ty Lee. "I'm sorry, but I had to." Aura declared, glaring at Azula, feeling really betrayed and hurt at the same time.

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**A/N: Hi guys! Thanks for reading chapter 15! You don't know how much it means for me. Please follow, favorite and review. Your opinion on the story is greatly appreciated! Any suggestions are welcome, too. **

**I'd also like to thank Digi-fanCatt for reviewing last chapter. **

**Thank You Everyone!**


	17. Running Away

**A New Life **

**Chapter 16:**

**Running Away**

Aura towered over Azula who was still protesting on the ground and snatched the locket out of her former friend's hand. She turned around regretting what she just did and put the locket around her neck, tucking it in her shirt. She didn't know what has gotten into her and why she did it. It wasn't like her to do such a thing, even if Azula deserved it.

Aura pushed those thoughts aside and decided on the best course of action, which was to run away. She scanned the room and spotted a bag and quickly stuffed some clothes inside along with other essentials that she might need when running away (which includes books). Azula's yelling was getting really annoying but she tried her best to ignore the insults the poor princess was throwing at her. Right now, she really wished that she could voice bend to shut her up, if it was even a thing.

She dashed out through the door to her kitchen, stealing some food (/well...it's not stealing if it's your house, but you get the idea) and then she walked into her father's study room. Slowly walking over to the desk, she caressed its wooden surface while going over to the chair, recalling all the memories she's shared with her parents. When gripping the edge of the chair tightly, a small tear slipped out of her eye against her will. She quickly wiped it away while trying to push aside the emotions that struggled to break through.

Aura smelled something burning and removed her hands from the edge of the chair to find her handprint burned into the wood. She panicked, thinking about her parents' reaction to her burning a chair. But then again, she's running away. She chuckled bitterly at the prospect of getting scolded by her parents. Which would be heaven compared to running away from home.

Remembering why she came to her father's study in the first place, Aura took out a small piece of paper and wrote a note to her parents for when they got back. She wouldn't want them to learn what happened from Azula or the authorities, she wanted them to know her side of the story, not theirs.

After it was done she sneaked out of the house through the back door, looking around to see if anybody was watching (especially Auzla's bodyguards). Finding nobody, Aura tip-toed out while ducking under things to stay hidden, until she was far from the house. By then she felt safe enough so she started walking. It didn't really matter if she walked right now since the chi blocking will wear off in an hour, so she had time. But then again, Azula's been screaming loudly to get someone's attention, so she might've ordered the bodyguards to capture her already. With that in mind, she ran as fast as she could.

Until she reached the middle ring. Unlike Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation's rings were separated by a wide road, which was used for wagons and other transportation that delivers goods from one place to another. It was a very busy road, so she had trouble getting to the other side. But when she did, Aura ran as fast as she could. Azula's chi blocking will wear of in half an hour and she had to get out of here before it wears off. To get to the edge of the capital city, would take a couple hours but if she was quick enough, she could get there in time.

When she reached the lower ring, she was surprised at the quality of things around there. The building were made of cheap wood and some even looked rusty! Then there was the people, who wore cheap quality clothing that didn't look too good, and some of them looked like they weren't washed properly. Well, she's never been to the lower ring, she's been to the middle ring a few times but never the lower ring. She decided not to focus on it too much and kept running.

By the time she reached the edge of the city (or the edge of the giant volcano), she stared at the towering gate that was carved into the edge of the volcano. Many wagons were streaming in and out of the gate and the inspectors checked over it to make sure that it was safe. It was going to be difficult to sneak out and there was no chance of her just walking through the gate, peacefully, especially since Azula's chi blocking has already worn off.

So she searched for a wagon that she could climb into and found the perfect one. When the owner of the wagon looked away, she quickly climbed in through the back and hid behind the crates. After awhile the wagon started moving but it stopped when she heard the inspectors and the wagon owner talking. Aura held her breath as one of the inspectors checked inside but immediately walked away finding nothing unusual. The inspectors gave a command as the wagon started moving once again.

It seemed like hours when Aura felt like she was far enough from the city. So she silently walked to the back and opened the door. She looked out to find that she was in an forested road, but the good thing is that she couldn't see the city because of the trees. Aura looked down at the road and gulped. She stood up and stepped back a little. Took a deep breath to calm her nerves, closed her eyes and jumped.

She landed on her feet with a huge impact, which made her body unstable, so she fell on her shoulders as her feet twisted under her weight. She groaned as she tried to sit up. Aura looked at her legs and noticed that she had several cuts. Which wasn't a big deal, those were just small cuts. She rolled her ankles to get rid of the pain and stood as she started to feel better. She picked up her bag, which fell right beside her when she jumped and continued her journey.

Aura walked for what seemed like forever, until she finally met a man, who was walking down the same path as hers. She approached him. "Excuse me? Can you tell me where the port town is? The one with the ships to the colonies?"

"Ah, yes, I do. It's not too far from here, just follow this path, straight ahead and you should find it." The man kindly told her the directions.

"Thank you, I greatly appreciate it." Aura thanked the kind man as they each took their own paths.

After a couple more minutes of walking, she spotted the port. It was bustling with all sorts of people who were headed to the colonies. But what she was mostly focused on were the guards that were stationed everywhere. But the good thing was the fact that most of the guards didn't seem to take their job seriously. It didn't take her too long to find a way to get on one of the ships.

That particular ship was bustling with people who were trying to get in, so she walked into the crowd, when the guard looked away, and pretended to be one of them. When she got in, without getting into trouble, she sat at a darkened corner in the ship and relaxed for the first time this day. When every passenger got on the ship, it got ready to sail to who-knows-which-colonie.

She mentally slapped herself for not finding out where this ship was going sooner. Oh well, it was too late to turn back. Now she has to go to some unknown destination. She groaned at her own stupidity. At least it's better than to be in the Capital City.

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The trip to the colony was easy enough. Nobody suspected anything of her. It only took Aura a couple days to arrive at the colony and throughout the whole boat trip she stayed at a corner keeping her head bowed down and eating her rations. When she finally arrived at the colony, she found out that it was a small town name Shèn Mèn, it was a new one that the Fire Nation conquered a couple weeks ago. The population was small but by the looks of it, it will start to grow into something bigger.

Everybody was settling in and building new shops and homes, it was a nice place to start over. There were a couple people wearing green clothes, walking around, looking unhappy. They must have been the Earth Kingdom people who lived here before the town was taken over. Aura walked around the town, taking everything in and thinking about her next move.

This would be the perfect place to start over, the colony was new, it was small, some minor town that the Fire Nation just took over. Nobody would suspect that Aura would be here. Just perfect!

The first step was that she needed a place to stay. When she turned the corner, she spotted an Inn just a couple meters ahead of her. Aura walked over to the door, but before that she looked at the huge banner strung above the door, it read: Li Ne's Inn. She shrugged and turned the doorknob as she walked in.

The first thing she noticed as she walked in was the nice little lounge set up in front of her, with people walking or sitting around, minding their own business. Beyond the lounge was the reception, where she would get a room.

At the reception, was a brunette haired lady, probably in her thirties, filing her nails, seeming really bored. As she got closer to the reception, she noticed that the women had dark brown eyes, and her lips were coated in bright red lipstick.

The women looked up and noticed Aura approaching. The women turned to her and now she had her complete and undivided attention. "What can I do for you, young lady?"

"I'm here to buy a room for a couple days, please. And I'd like to know how much it would be." Aura asked politely.

"Where are your parents, young lady?" The women demanded.

"They are not here." Aura answered.

The women chuckled, looking pretty amused at Aura's confused look. "You are kidding right?"

Aura shook her head.

"Are you saying that I'm supposed to sell a room to a . . . 12? 13? Year old? No way!" She continued laughing at her.

Feeling angry and embarrassed, Aura's face started heating up, turning bright red. She stood there seething at the women, who was still laughing.

Somebody else casually walked over to the reception. "Lan, are you making fun of people again?"

Aura turned to see that it was another women, probably in her thirties, with a strait light brown hair put up in a messy bun, dark eyes and cherry colored lips.

"Tch! A kid wants to buy a room by herself. What am I suppose to say?" The receptionist, Lan, said.

"You could've been a little nicer." The other women explained.

"Whatever." Lan muttered as she rolled her eyes.

The other woman turned to her. "So, kid, what are you doing out here all alone?"

"Thank you for your help but I will be going right now." Aura ignored the question and bowed, Fire Nation style. Then she turned around and walked away.

The women didn't seem to get the hint and followed her outside. "Hey, kid, walk with me for a minute."

Aura sighed, "Fine."

After awhile of walking, the woman finally started talking. "So, you are not from around here, aren't you?"

"No." Aura replied.

"And by the looks of it, you're running away."

"How did you-"

"Oh, please! It's obvious." The women shook her head while saying 'tch,tch,tch' "I mean, you have a backpack and I'm guessing it has clothes, food, money, and everything you will need. And to add to that, you don't look too good. I mean your hair . . . and your clothes, well, let's just say it looks dirty."

Aura looked at herself, feeling self-conscious.

The woman put her arm around her shoulder and reassured her. "Don't worry about it, I was a runaway once myself. I know how you feel."

"Really?" Aura looked at the woman skeptically.

"Yeah, I know I don't look like a runaway, but I am." After a pause she said, "Tell you what, I'll give you a place to stay-"

"Really!?" Aura exclaimed hopefully, cutting her off. The woman gave her a look. "Oh, sorry."

"-If you help me with my new restaurant."

"I can do that." Aura grinned.

"I'm sure you can." After a pause, she talked again. "My names Ming."

"Aura." They shook hands.

After that, Ming took Aura to her house, which was just beside her restaurant, and showed her around. When night fell, Ming set up a mattress on her living room floor for Aura to sleep on tonight. Like every night, since she had to run away, she would go to sleep while clutching onto her locket.

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**A/N: **_Thank You so much for reading this chapter! I know it took a little longer to write this time, but I also have school to worry about, so yeah._

_I'd like to thank DigifanCatt for reviewing again! _

_And I also got 41 reviews on this story! Yay!_

_If you have any suggestions, concerns or opinions, leave them the review box below. Thank You!_


	18. Two Weeks

**A New Life **

**Chapter 17:**

**Two Weeks**

The next morning, Aura rose with the sun, like any other firebender. She yawned as she stood up and stretched. Surprise etched her face when she took a look at her surroundings, but then she remembered that she was staying with Ming.

Aura opened her bag and searched for the extra clothes. When she found it, she got rid of her old ones and changed into the new ones. She folded up the old clothes and put it in her bag. She made a mental note to ask Ming if she could go wash herself and her clothes.

Then Aura tip-toed over to Ming's bedroom door. The door creaked as she silently opened it to see that Ming was still fast asleep. Right, she's a non-bender, she doesn't rise with the sun. Aura thought to herself.

She slowly shut the door as she walked over to the washroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and stared with disapproval at her own reflection. She combed her hair with her fingers as best she could, tweaking out the knots, then tying it in her usual pony tail with her bangs falling at the sides of her face.

Then she went back to the living room to her mattress, and took out her favorite book - the collection of all the legends-, reading it while waiting for Ming to wake up.

When the sun started to rise higher up in the sky and lost its orange-ish tint turning it to blue, that's when Ming woke up. Ming walked into the living room, rubbing her eyes tiredly while yawning. She saw Aura sitting at her mattress, reading a book, ready to start the day. She leaned in on the wall crossing her arms, and cleared her throat.

That startled Aura out of her reverie and she looked up to see Ming, her hair disheveled, her clothes messy and her face still looking tired. Aura put on her most sweetest smile and said, "Good morning, Ming." with a slight bow of her head.

"Good morning." Ming replied. "So, you look like you are ready to start the day."

"Yup!" Aura cheerfully jumped up after putting away her book, still managing to smile sweetly. "So, what do I do?"

"Uh . . . well . . . we need to eat breakfast first, right? Don't think I'm going to starve myself, kid."

"It's Aura."

"Yeah, I know. But I think 'kid' suits you just fine."

Aura raised her eyebrows, feeling annoyed.

"So, you know how to cook?" Ming asked as she walked into the kitchen, Aura following right behind her.

"Well . . . not really." Aura stuttered sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

"How are you supposed to work in a restaurant if you don't know how to cook." Ming looked at her disapprovingly while holding on to a frying pan. She looked pretty intimidating with that frying pan without even meaning to.

"I think I will just . . . serve or . . . work at the cashier . . . or . . . I don't know, something that doesn't involve cooking and I'm pretty sure there's plenty of jobs that doesn't involve cooking."

"Fine." After that little conversation, Ming went on cooking their breakfast. She made different flavors of dumplings and each was delicious, Aura's never eaten anything as good as this. /No wonder she owns a restaurant.

While they were eating, Ming asked a question. "When did you wake up? You looked like you woke up early."

"I woke up at sunrise." Aura mumbled with her mouth full.

"How do you do that? I can barley wake up during the day." Ming chuckled.

"It's a firebender thing."

"You are a firebender?"

"Yes."

Ming scowled which made Aura think that she said something wrong. "Did I say something wrong?" She voiced her thoughts.

"No, you didn't say anything." Ming shook her head, her features saddening. Obviously recalling the memories of the day the Fire Nation took over Shèn Mèn. "It's just that, when the Fire Nation attacked this village, everything got burned and a lot of people got hurt . . . or worse. The lucky ones escaped or some of us are living here trying to be as normal as possible."

"Oh, I didn't know." Aura said sympathetically, immediately losing her appetite. She didn't know anything about the attack, but by the looks of it, it must've been really bad.

"Anyways, are you done?" Ming asked after a silent minute, obviously not willing to dwell on the memory.

"Yes." Aura replied.

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After that little incident, Ming finally took her to her famed restaurant, Ming's Lotus Cuisine. It was a spacious place with lots of decorated tables and chairs. The walls were decorated with paintings to make it look pleasant and welcoming.

The counter, where the customers would order their food or pay, was decorated with vases filled with colorful flowers. Behind the counter was a door, covered by a thin white veil, leading the the back of the restaurant, which was only reserved for the employers.

The back of the restaurant was as nice as the front. First thing you'd see is a clean little kitchen, with cabinets filled with all sorts of ingredients to make the food and along a wall it even had small lockers for the employers to put their things in.

Ming figured out the perfect job for Aura, after giving her a tour of the place, she was to be the servers. She would take the orders and tell Ming (the chef) to make the food. Then after that, she would make sure that every customer paid the right amount.

After awhile, Ming's other workers started coming in. There were only three and all were about the same age and height as Ming.

Their names were, Yun, Hye, and Aiko. It seemed like the three were good friends of Ming, she could tell by the way they talked to each other and their easy-going attitude around themselves.

The first time they met her, the three seemed surpri

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sed, questioning Ming's decision. Ming took them to the back room, while Aura stayed in the front, cleaning, while Ming explained to them why she brought her along. After that, the three seemed to warm up to her presence.

Ming got her and the others their uniform. It was a simple light green dress, with thick white trimmings, along the sides. It also came with a white belt with the logo of the restaurant printed on it, which was a small flower with petals that was pink fading into white inwardly.

Before the restaurant opened up for the day, we did a little last minute clean up, making sure that the tables and chairs were at the right place, and wiping the place, making sure that there wasn't any speck of dust left.

They stood at their posts with smiles on their faces as customers started streaming in. Aura did her best to take every order properly and make sure that people paid the right amount. It started to get busier during the lunch hour, and it became more difficult to keep up with the orders. But the customers started to die down after the lunch hour ended. Then it became even more busier as dinner time started nearing. It was hard work but she always tried to do her best no matter what.

In the end of the day, when the restaurant closed, they all stayed behind and enjoyed the left over food. After that, everybody went home proudly, and satisfied with their hard work.

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After four days of working in the restaurant, Ming finally decided to teach her how to cook. Her first attempt was a cupcake. It didn't turn out so good, the cupcake had lumps of butter and flour everywhere, it didn't rise properly (probably because she put the wrong ingredient) and it didn't taste good. Aura was disappointed by the outcome, she really thought that she did a good job at it.

Ming, Yun, Hye and Aiko pretended to like the cupcake, they ate the whole thing without barfing! Even Aura threw up. But she had a feeling that they were using the napkin trick, since they were suspiciously wiping their mouth after each bite. She felt really sorry for them, eating those bad cupcakes just to make her happy.

Ming took her last bite and wiped her mouth. "T-That was good, kid." She said, putting on a fake smile.

"Mhmm, Yes, i-it was delicious." Hye gave her a thumbs up and tried her best to smile. Aiko and Yun nodded to Hye's words.

"You guys really need to stop pretending." Aura said matter-of-factly, while crossing her arms.

"What? Who said we were pretending? Pst, that's ridiculous!" Aiko nervously laughed.

Aura rolled her eyes and said, "You guys can pretend all you want, but I know that the cupcakes were bad."

After a couple minutes of silence, Ming abruptly stood up. "Anyways, you were making a smoked-seaslug, remember?"

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that." Aura opened the door and rushed into the kitchen. The smell of smoke hit her like a brick. She coughed and squinted her eyes to see through the smoke and finally reached for the source.

The stove was fire!

Her first instinct was to dump a bucket full of water on it and she did. The fire died down and when she turned around she saw Ming, Yun, Hye and Aiko standing by the doorway with a horrified look on their faces.

"Oops . . . Sorry." Aura sheepishly looked at the ground, while nervously shuffling around with her feet. But

"Oh, well. I was gonna get rid of the stove anyway." Ming casually strolled over to Aura and put her hands around her shoulder. "It's ok, don't worry, kid. I ordered a new stove anyway. It's arriving tomorrow." Everybody else gave her a look like she was crazy. Ming shrugged, "What? The stove was bad." Everybody just stared at her. "Come on! Let's clean this mess!"

Aura looked at the blackened smoked-seaslug and poked it. It was as hard as a rock!

"You made the smoked-seaslug too . . . smoked." Hye laughed at her own joke.

"Nice one!" Yun elbowed her and laughed along.

Ming rolled her eyes and dumped the seaslug into the trash can.

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The next day, the new stove arrived, exactly like Ming said it would. She told us that it was a new brand and that it was an exclusive offer. She blabbed on and on about how good it was, even when the restaurant was busy with customers. Finally, at the end of the day, Yun made her shut up, but harshly. Ming didn't even look fazed and she just gave her a smartass reply.

At night, Aura settled on the mattress at the living room floor with her favorite book. After about an hour, Ming came in with two sandwiches, one for Aura and one for Ming. She looked up from her book and grabbed one of the sandwiches. Ming took hers and they ate in silence.

Finally after awhile, Ming broke the silence. "So, what are you reading, kid?"

Aura's eyes lit up, "It's about the collection of the old legends. It my favorite book!"

"Really? So, you like to read?" Ming frowned.

"Yes, I do." Aura replied, but one look at Ming made her frown too. "Why are you making that look?"

"What look?" Ming raised her eyebrow.

"Never mind the look. What's on your mind?" Aura asked.

"Nothing."

"Come on, what's wrong?" Aura started poking her, hoping that this would get her what she wants. /Like Ty Lee sometimes did when I was being was being stubborn. Aura shook the memory of her friend out of her mind.

Ming sighed, "I just don't see what's so fun about reading."

"How come?" Aura stood up angrily and folded her arms. "Reading is like the best thing in the world!" She emphasized her statement by throwing her hands in the air.

Mig rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, kid."

"Come on! I'll show you." Aura plopped down on the mattress and enthusiastically grabbed her book while telling Ming about the stories. After a half an hour of talking, Ming fell asleep out of her boredom. It took Aura another half an hour to notice that Ming was asleep. She started cursing under her breath, but her anger went away after awhile and she decided to sleep next to Ming for the night.

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The rest of the week went as usual, wake up, eat breakfast, work at restaurant, dinner, talk with Ming, go to sleep and repeat.

On Aura's eleventh day, she asked a question that's been plaguing her mind since she met Ming. She would've asked that question a long time ago but it seem a little too private to be asked so soon. So she waited, until she became closer to Ming. She took a deep breath and gathered her courage.

Aura waited until Ming came into the living after dinner, like usual and sat down beside her. "Remember when you said that you were a runaway?" Aura blurted, before releasing a breath she didn't even know she was holding. Ming seemed startled by her outburst but then her facial features darkened. "Sorry, that's not how I wanted to say it." Aura apologized.

"No, it's fine." Ming said, distantly looking off to the side with a frown on her face. Aura waited, expecting her to say something, but she never did. She just stood up and left without another word. Not even a slight glance to look at Aura.

After that, Aura lay there on her mattress contemplating her actions. It was well past midnight when she started feeling tired and she dozed off.

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The next morning when Aura woke up, she barely talked to Ming, except for their greetings. Then, in the restaurant, the only time Ming would talk to her was when she was telling her the orders, other than that, Ming seemed disinterested in making any small talk. Which got them concerned looks from Yun, Hye and Aiko.

Later in the night, Aura was thinking of an apology to Ming, but whatever she thought of seemed to come out the wrong way. Ming came into the living at the usual time, a couple minutes after dinner. She sat down right beside Aura, deep in her thoughts. Aura got ready to apologize by gathering up her courage and repeating it one more time in her head. She opened her mouth. But before she could utter anything, Ming talked silently.

"I should tell you about how and why I ran away." Ming whispered, her dark eyes boreing right into Aura's amber ones. Aura waited, letting Ming take as much time as possible. And when she did talk, her voice was barley a whisper so Aura had to strain her ears to listen.

"I should start from the beginning. My parents were small merchants in one of the small Earth Kingdom city." She started. "They didn't get along very well. They fell in love, but when they married, they realized that they weren't meant for each other." She paused. "My parent's families saw divorce as a sign of disgrace and it was unacceptable, so they had no choice but to stay together."

"After a couple years, I was born. They acted nicely around me, but whenever I was asleep I could hear them yelling at each other. One day, when I was five, my dad started getting drunk all the time. I don't how it happened or why but that's the day things started getting a little rough."

"He started abusing my mom for little things. He started abusing me when I got a little older. He put strict rules around the house and when we broke them . . . well . . . let's just say the consequences were bad."

"When I turned twelve, my mom found a way to escape my dad and we moved to a new town, far away from dad. Life started getting better, but after two years, the Fire Nation attacked the town a-and . . . th-they . . . they . . ." Ming covered her face and broke down crying.

Aura knew exactly what she meant, she too had lost her mother. Her hands subconsciously clutched her necklace. She didn't know what exactly you had to do in these situations, so she just let Ming have a shoulder to cry on, but she yanked away from Aura.

Then Aura started saying soothing words to make Ming feel better, she then told her own story of how she was taken from her real mother (not including the part where she was from the other world), to which Ming looked up with a sympathetic look on her face. Ming dried her tears and continued, after much insisting form Aura that she didn't have to.

Ming took in a shaky breath, "After that, I was lost . . . in the Earth Kingdom. Then a miracle came and I found my father. He took me in, but he still didn't get rid of his drinking problems. Life started getting bad again, so I ran away and lived on the streets. After a couple years I settled in this place and with the help of my friends I opened the restaurant."

Silence followed after her story ended. Ming seemed to be expectant of Aura's reaction to the story, but she didn't know what to say and the silence was killing her. Before Aura could say anything, Ming spoke up. "Why did you run away?" She asked.

To which Aura replied, "Well . . . let's just say I sort broke the law."

"Oh . . . I see." Ming nodded her head, to show that she understood. After a couple more minutes of silence, she stood up and left.

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The next day, they woke up like any other morning, but this morning was a little different. They had a better understanding of each other. They started talking more often and it seems like Ming feels better telling it to her. She even told her that she could stay as long as she wanted.

They went to the restaurant and Aura dressed in her usual uniform, the green dress. The day went as usual with her taking orders and serving.

Later in the afternoon, she came back into the restaurant with the groceries. They were running out of food so Aura had to get some from the nearest store.

"Phew! Finally you're here!" Hye said when Aura came into the back room of the restaurant. She rushed over to Aura and took the grocery bags from her. "We really need you out there. Yun is taking your place while you were gone." Hye leaned over and whispered, "She messed up some of the orders."

Aura giggled and walked over to Yun, who was taking an order from a mother and her child.

"I'll take it from here." She said to Yun, to which Yun sighed and gave her the pencil and notepad and walked away. Aura turned to the mother and child, and put on a bright smile. "What can I get you today?"

"We'd like a roast duck and Komodo sausage." He woman said.

She scribbled the order onto the notepad. "Anything else?" She asked.

"No, thats all."

Aura walked to the counter, she ripped the note from the notepad and handed it to Yun. She took a couple more orders, then after awhile the customers started trickling out.

There weren't many customers so Aura sat down to take a break. In a minute or so, two Fire Nation officers walked in and sat on a table at the back of the restaurant. They were officers who watched over the town, like the police, except worse. Right now they looked through they the menu.

Aiko came and sat down beside Aura. She nudged her and pointed at the two officers. "You should go and take their orders."

Aura nodded her head, and grabbed her notepad and pencil. She made sure to put a big smile on her face as she went to the officer's table. They looked up for the menu when she approached them.

"What can I get you today, sir?" She asked politely. They were giving her suspicious looks and she didn't know why. The officer's scrutinizing gaze was making her uncomfortable, but she tried not to show it.

"You look familiar." The officer, a middle aged man with pure Fire Nation looks and a top knot fastened with a thick red sting, glared at her.

"I don't think I've ever met you." Aura stated.

"Maybe not, but you do look like somebody." He other officer, also a middle aged man with a pointy beard, started taking out a piece of folded paper. "Maybe you are this person . . . Aura."

Aura's eyes widened and she dropped her pencil and notepad. There . . . on the paper was a painting of her, with a huge WANTED sign written in bold above her painting. Below her painting read: REWARD: $1000. She was horrified and for a moment she stood still.

One of the officer took out a handcuff and made a move to attack her, but before he could, she quickly threw out a stream of fire to the officers and dashed out of the restaurant. She had no idea where she was going, but all the knew was that she had to put as much distance between her and the officers.

Behind her, she started hearing people shouting and when she turned around to take a look, there were five more soldiers chasing her. She just ran around without even knowing where she was going, while pushing people aside. All of a sudden, four soldiers stood in front of her threw strong fire balls at her but she extinguished most of them, before turning a corner.

Aura found an alleyway and hid in the shadows. The footsteps started getting farther away from her and she sighed as she stepped out of the shadows.

That was a huge mistake, since the moment she stepped out of the shadow, a huge stream of fire came right to her. Luckily she managed to dodge it, but barley, since she got scorch mark on her dress and her hair.

When Aura looked up at the roof, she recognized one of the officers from the restaurant. He swiftly jumped down from the roof, how he manage to do that, she had no idea. He took a fighting stance and she copied him.

Aura had no way of escaping, she was cornered at the edge of the wall. The only way she could escape is by fighting that officer.

He seemed to notice her struggle to find a suitable exit route, so he smirked, the kind of smirk that makes your blood run cold. "So, I see the brave Aura is stuck In a dirty alleyway with me." He said sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.

She didn't say anything. She just glared at the man with as much hatred she could muster.

His smirk started getting wider. "You know, your parents are worried. They are wondering why you ran away."

Aura gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, getting ready to fight if she had to.

"The Firelord and the princess wants you to be executed. Is it something you did? Must've been pretty bad if they want you to be executed."

That's it! Aura threw a strong stream of fire at the man, putting almost all her energy into that last blow. The man dodged, but not without almost burning his uniform, which in turn, made Aura smile devilishly. But the man simply looked annoyed as he threw a series of fire balls at her.

Adrenaline flowed through her veins as the fight started. She dodged the fire balls and extinguished a couple that she couldn't. Then she made an ark of fire to extinguish the officer's other fire balls with her own. The officer stumbled back a little, but didn't seem too fazed at all.

He threw his arms back and used a great force of fire to slam Aura to the wall. Aura's head hit the stone wall pretty badly, she started feeling dizzy. Her vision became messed up, she seemed to see two of the same officer approaching her with a hand cuff. As her vision started to get better, she noticed about five other soldiers standing behind the man, covering her possible escape route. _They must have found us because of the fight._

With her quick thinking, Aura threw fire at the man's chest and quickly stood up, settling into a fighting stance. _Shit! There are too many of them!_

All of the soldiers, including the man, threw fire at her. She made a huge wall of fire to block their attack. She stumbled back, not being able to handle all that force. The fire wall collapsed and all the fire from the soldiers consumed her. Luckily for her, she was a firebender so she managed not to get herself burned too much, since any non-bender would've been 'injured' at this rate.

When they stopped, she came out as a smoking mess. Aura's knees wobbled, and she collapsed on the hard ground. The soldiers rushed to her and pinned her to the ground. They put her hands behind her back, but before they could she heated her hands with firebending and when the soldier touched her, he yanked his hand back because of the heat that was emitted from her hands. _I'm not gonna give up quite so soon._

This gave Aura enough of an opening, to quickly sit up and released an ark of fire at the soldiers around her. She pushed aside a couple of the dazed soldiers and ran out of the alleyway.

The soldiers got out of their dazed state and continued chasing Aura across the town. She looked back and saw that the soldiers were coming closer. She almost bumped into a cabbage merchant, but she managed to dodge him. She then turned back and lit the cabbages on fire.

_Hopefully this will slow them down._

As she started to get farther away, she heard a distant, '_Not my cabbages!' _from the cabbage merchant.

After that she dodged most of the soldiers as she managed to get out of town. The adrenaline left her veins as she started getting farther and farther away form the town.

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**A/N:** _Thank You so much for reading this chapter! This took a really long time to write. It's more than 4,000 words! The longest chapter so far._

_I'd like to thank **Digi-fanCatt** and **TotallyCray-Cray** for reviewing last chapter. To answer TotallyCray-Cray's question, well Aura might meet him._

_Tell me your opinions in the little box below. Any questions are welcome. The reviews keep me motivated to keep writing._


	19. Farms

**A New Life **

**Chapter 18:**

**Farms**

Aura ran and ran, not daring to look back. If she did, she would be filled with regret of leaving Ming and the others just when they were getting closer. So she ran and ran, as fast as she could. She didn't know how long she ran, but when she did stop, it was sundown.

Aura sat on a cold hard rock, panting. Her legs felt like jelly, and when she tried to stand up, she collapsed back down to the ground because of exhaustion. She sat there, trying to catch her breath. She stood up, looking around for a good spot to sleep. Too bad she wasn't as prepared as before, she had nothing, no food, no blanket, no pillow, no sleeping bag, no extra clothes . . . nothing!

The only thing she had that was useful was her clothes and even that was falling apart because of the rough fight. Sparring was way easier than a real fight.

_At least she still had her locket._ She clutched the locket to her chest and cried, bright hot tears streamed down her eyes, blurring her vision. She sobbed and wiped away the tears with the sleeve of her dress.

Aura continued walking, until she saw a cave. By the time she reached the cave, evening became night and she had to light a fire in her hands to see the insides of the cave.

The heavy darkness consumed the light in her hand, she could only see a meter ahead of her. But that was still enough to see the bugs scuttling around the cave. She simply ignored the bugs on the floor of the cave and collapsed on the ground as soon as she found a suitable spot to sleep during the night. Exhaustion took over her body, her eyelids felt heavy as it forced itself to be closed and soon she was fast asleep.

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The next morning Aura woke up, her back stiff and her shoulders hurting. She panicked when she took in her surroundings, but then, all the memories from yesterday came rushing in. Her shoulders slumped as she sadly looked around the cave. Now that the sun was up, she could get a better look at the cave, there were more bugs than she's seen yesterday.

Aura stood up and stretched to get rid of the stiffness and the pain in her shoulders. She started feeling ticklish on her arms and when she looked at it, she shrieked and slapped her arm, which killed the small bug that was crawling up her arm. She shuddered, feeling creeped out.

It would be best to get out of the cave since she had no intention of letting creepy-crawlys crawl up her arms. She shuddered at the chilling air the instant she was out in the forest. It was almost winter so the weather was getting colder, colder than she was used to in the Fire Nation. Unfortunately, the air felt colder to her since her dress was too thin and to add to that, it was falling apart. But there was a bright side to being a firebender, her body heat was usually higher.

Aura warmed up her body with her firebending and walked around the forest, having no idea where she was going. She stopped and thought of a plan. Her stomach grumbled and she clutched at it. Yup, right now, she had to find some thing to eat. She scanned the area and found a berry bush.

She ran over to it and started taking some off the bush, but then she stopped what she was doing and thought, _what if its poisonous_? Aura had no intention of dying from eating poisonous berries. Who would want to die of eating poisonous berries, especially when your young? So she immediately dropped the berries in her hands.

She started to think of another plan, which was to find a road so that she could look for a village or town or anything with civilization nearby. Then she would find something proper to eat.

After that was decided, she walked toward a random direction, while bumping into bushes and trees and getting her hair tangled in the mess.

She started thinking of how stupid she was to think that living in a Fire Nation colony would keep her safe. Fire Nation colonies are still part of the Fire Nation so, of course, they figured out that she was _wanted_. Finally she reached a dirt path, obviously carved out by humans, and stopped her trail of thoughts and complaints.

_Left or right?_ Aura asked herself. _Right, because it's right._ She grinned at the joke she just made and walked to the right. After walking for what seemed like forever, she found a Earth Kingdom citizen, a man, walking at the other direction. Aura slowly approached the stranger, and asked, "Excuse me? Where can I find the nearest town?"

"Just go straight, and you'll see it." The man said.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome."

Aura continued her journey across the forest, until she spotted the town. The closer Aura got to the town, the more she started noticing the heavy smoke around the buildings.

The first impression she had of the town was the destruction. There were houses, charred and burned to the ground, while the unlucky ones were still on fire. The people in this town walked around with miserable faces. Most people seemed to be dragging their belongings in traveling bags. By the looks of it, a lot of them were were homeless and planning on leaving the town.

Aura was curious as to why and how this happened, so she approached the closest person, who was a woman. "Excuse me? I just want to know what happened to this town."

The woman gave her an annoyed look, she looked her up and down as Aura stood there uncomfortably. Finally, the woman's feature softened. "You are not from her are you?"

Aura shook her head.

The woman sighed and waved her hand, indicating the town, "This is what happens when the Fire Nation attacks your village. They started attacking us a few days ago, taking away all our earth benders and burning down houses, killing people. Those bastards! Now almost everyone's homeless and looking for a safer place to live, where the Fire Nation won't attack them."

Aura looked around her with wide eyed horror. She had no idea that the Fire Nation, her nation, her home, could be this cruel. Well, she did expect that things would be bad, but not this. This is just pure evil! She halfheartedly listened to the woman's rambling, and mostly focused on her thoughts. Finally, after trying to get Aura's attention, the woman walked away.

Aura stood at the edge of the town. Finally her stomach rumbled, taking her out of her thoughts. She clutched her stomach and decided to head into town to find something to eat that wasn't destroyed.

All the tired looking faces of the towns people passed her, exiting the town, probably never to come back. It seemed like she was the only one heading in, while the others filed out, slowly.

Finally after passing a couple closed shops, Aura found an open stall selling fruits at the end of the street and started examining the fruits.

"Hey! What are you doing here? We are about to close!"

Aura jumped back at the sudden voice and dropped the peach she was holding back where it belongs to. When she looked to where the voice came from, it was a woman from her late 40s or early 50s, with auburn hair that had a couple white strands, dim green eyes and a couple wrinkles on her face out of stress.

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am." Aura apologized as she bowed her head to show that she _was_ sorry. "I didn't know that it was closing."

"Now, scram!" The lady waved her off harshly. Aura flinched at the lady's harshness.

"Before I go, may I buy a peach?" Aura asked politely.

"Sure, whatever!" The women said grumpily. "Two silver coins." She put her hand forward, expecting Aura to put the coin in the woman's hand.

Aura panicked, patting her pocket (yes, her dress had pockets but it was just hard to see) and looking inside it to find that she had no money. Aura mentally face-palmed herself for being so stupid. She sheepishly looked up at the woman, who was currently glaring at her.

The woman sighed exasperatedly, "You have money or not?"

"No." Aura said in a small voice.

"Then why am I even bothering to talk to you!?" The woman burst out, angrily. "Now, go away!"

Aura slowly started to walk away, hoping that the woman will take pity on her and give her free food. But there's no such luck of that happening, definitely not with a grumpy person like her. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She turned around, addressing the woman who was about to clean up. "I could help you with something."

The woman raised her eyebrow. "And why would you do that?"

"You will get my help, in exchange for food and someplace to stay."

"Why would I need your help?" The woman asked, taking an interest in the offer.

"Well . . ." Aura thought for a moment, then remembered what she did in the restaurant. "I could clean, but if there's anything else you'd like me to do, I am a fast learner so I think it's worth it."

The woman thought this over for a moment and nodded her head, businesslike, "Ok, I think that can work. I really do need some help. I don't think my old bones can handle that much work."

Aura grinned and thanked the old woman with a little bow.

"Now, clean this place up!" The woman shoved a crate in her hands for her to put the extra fruits in.

The woman walked behind the stall to get another crate, but before she could she spoke up, "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh, it's . . . um . . ." Aura nervously fidgeted with her hand, thinking of a good Earth Kingdom name, since her real name would show her heritage.

"What? Are you telling me you don't know your own name?" The woman snickered at her, like she was a dumb moose-lion.

Feeling offended by the woman's remark, Aura quickly said the first Earth Kingdom name she could think of. "Ming, my name is Ming." _Sorry Ming, I hope you didn't mind, but this is necessary._

Aura nervously offered her hand to the woman, who simply ignored the gesture and went to work.

"And what should I call you, ma'am?" Aura asked.

"Masuyo, now get back to work!"

Aura did as she was told putting all the fruits in the crate and dragging it to the cart where she met her first ostrich horse. At first she was very wary of approaching an animal like that, but she eventually figured out that the ostrich horse won't do anything and komodo rhinos are scarier than ostrich horses.

"You know, I don't live in this village. I just come here to sell my fruits and vegetables. I have a farm of my own not far from here." The woman said, when taking a breaking from packing up her stall.

"Of course, that's fine." Aura said, thinking that Masuyo thought that this would be an issue for her. But it really wasn't, she doesn't mind it as long as she has someplace to stay.

"Good, 'cause I need your help in the farm anyway."

"Ok," was her only answer to that.

After ur ting the things in the cart, Masuyo made her sit on the ostrich horse and drag the cart. Aura told her that she didn't know how to do this, but Masuyo told her that it's pretty simple and showed her how to handle one. After that she quickly got a hang of it and they headed to the farm Masuyo talked about.

They left the forested areas of the Earth Kingdom and started toward the plains, where Masuyo's farm was located. Masuyo owed a big piece of the land filled with assorted types of fruits and vegetables. She even had a barn with a couple farm animals.

Masuyo showed Aura around the area, and she wondered how a woman like her could take care of so many fruits and vegetables all by herself. When she voiced her thoughts, Masuyo said that her husband was taken to the Earth Kingdom Army a long time ago. Since then she's been taking care of the farm with her daughter, who also left awhile ago. Now Masuyo's been taking care of the farm by herself for almost 3 months.

Masuyo showed Aura where she would sleep in tonight, at the barn where the straws were. Aura wasn't too happy about that, being raised in a rich family and all, but she didn't say anything. Then Masuyo cooked them a porridge and Aura ate it hungrily. After that Masuyo took them outside, showing Aura how to take care of the plants.

By the time they were done, it was dark and Aura went into the barn right after dinner to sleep. Masuyo told her that she needed to be up by sunrise, which was no problem for her. Usually Aura could sleep right away, especially after an exhausting day, but the straw was so uncomfortable. She constantly shifted her position every now and then, trying to get comfortable and after an hour of moving around, she finally went into an uncomfortable sleep.

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_Aura opened her eyes to find that she was in a black nothingness. The blackness was blinding, so she put her hand up creating a small fire on her palm. She panicked when she could feel the fire, but couldn't see it. She felt so blinded in this blackness._

_All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a stream of fire encircled her and this time she could see it. Then she noticed a woman standing outside of the fire, with her back facing her. Aura squinted her eyes to see through the dancing flames encircling her and to figure out who the woman was._

_"Aura"_

_A silent whisper could be heard from her ears and she immediately recognized the the voice. Aura's guess was confirmed when the woman slowly turned around._

_"Mom?" Tears streamed down Aura's eyes, as she recognized the woman as her mother, her REAL mother. Then she gasped in horror, as she took in her mother's face. Her mother, her beautiful mom, was all bruised up. Her eyes were the dark shade of purple, bloated and bleeding. Her face had several deep cuts and scars. Her shoulder was hunched up in a weird position. Aura started towards her but the fire prevented her from getting anywhere._

_"Aura"_

_Aura tried again at the fragile voice of her mother, scorching her hands in the process. Suddenly blue flames grabbed her hands, legs and waist, dragging her away from her mother, who shattered into tiny pieces._

_Finally, the blue flames let go of her, and she collapsed on the ground crying._

_"Aura"_

_A cheerful male voice, echoed around her ears. She looked up to find Zuko smiling at her, without the bandage she saw him in the last time she saw him. Then his cheerful face turned to one of horror as a jet of flame burned at his left eye. Aura screamed and tried to run to Zuko, but the more she tried the farther she was getting from him. Zuko looked at her with anger, and Aura just stared at the horrific scar on his face. All of a sudden, a flaming inferno came at Zuko, burning him alive._

_"Aura!" He screamed before he was gone._

_"Aura"_

_Two voices called out to her on her right and when she turned around, she saw her adoptive parents, Jia and Hong. Jia opened up her arms in a wide embrace, smiling lovingly at Aura. "Come here, Sweetheart."_

_Happiness overcame her as she ran up to Jia hoping to tackle her in a big hug. But that never happened, since the instant Aura touched Jia, both her parents collapsed into tiny glass shards._

_"Aura"_

_Two voices called out to her from her back. One cheerful and the other bored. When Aura turned around, she saw her two best friends, Ty Lee and Mai. Ty Lee was jumping up and down, exited to see her, and Mai was putting up her bored looking front, but she could tell that Mai was happy as well. Aura grinned at her friends and started towards them, when suddenly blue flames that looked like vines, grabbed them, twisting around their bodies and dragging them away from her. She screamed, reaching her hand out to them._

_"Hey, kid."_

_Another female voice called out and she turned around to see Ming, already burning. Aura touched Ming and she turned to ash which swiftly flew away._

_Aura collapsed onto the ground again, hot tears streaming down her face, sobbing and violently racking her body._

_"Aura"_

_A playful voice purred from behind her. Aura turned around to find Azula smirking at her display of weakness._

_"Tch, tch, tch." Azula sauntered over to Aura, her joy clearly gleaming in her eyes. Azula settled in a fighting stance and thrust her hand forward releasing a hot blue jet of flame towards Aura, who shielded her face against the flames, she creamed when the fire ate her alive._

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Aura woke up with a start, cold sweat running down her face. A tear slipped down her eye as she frantically looked around to find that she was still in the barn. Relief washed over her at the sight of her surroundings, glad that she wasn't in that blackness anymore._ It was just a nightmare_, she told herself over and over, repeating the same sentence in her head, breathing in deep meditative breaths to help her calm down. Finally she sighed softly as the rush of the nightmare went away.

It was still a couple hours away from sunrise so Aura could try to get some more sleep. But no matter how hard she tried, the nightmares came back to haunt her, so instead she sat up in the lotus position, meditating on the happier days in the farm with Masuyo.

Oh Masuyo, she was a pretty grumpy lady, but when you get to know her, she can actually be a nice person with a lot of wisdom in her head.

Yes, Aura's been in the farm for more than two weeks and she's learned more than she expected to. Being in the farm was a good experience for her and she loved it. Aura hoped that she could stay here for a long time. Thinking about the days of hard work and fun brought a smile to her face. The next time she opened her eyes, she broke out of her lotus position and felt the warmth of the sun as it slowly rose to the sky.

Aura quickly got ready for the day and headed to he dining room at Masuyo's house. She knew exactly what she was expecting, nice hot mouthwatering breakfast to give her energy for the day. It wasn't as good as the spicy Fire Nation food she was used to, but it was still good.

The nice smell of the food wafted toward her when she sat at the table. Masuyo greeted her, setting all the food on the table and they quickly ate the food. While they ate, Masuyo told her that they should take all the fruits and vegetables down, before winter came rolling in.

They headed outside to the apple trees, taking the good ones down and putting it in a basket. Then when that was done, they went back inside to get all the other fruits and vegetables that they've harvested yesterday and put it in the cart for the ostrich horse to take to the town.

Aura sat on the ostrich horse and waited for Masuyo to get in the cart. Then she grabbed the reins and gave the signal for the ostrich horse to keep moving. This time they were heading to another town which was a two hour ride away from the farm.

Half the rid was filled with silence, since none of them knew what to talk about. Finally after half an hour of silence, Masuyo spoke up, "You know, you never told me how you ended up like this."

"I told you, it's complicated." Aura gave her her usual reply.

"That's what you always say." Masuyo grumbled grumpily.

"I'm sorry but I'd rather not talk about it." Aura said, mostly focusing on the road ahead of her.

"Whatever." Masuyo muttered, grumpily as always.

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"Tell me, how'd you end up like this?" Masuyo asked, during dinner.

They came back from the town an hour ago, when they finished selling the food. Now Masuyo was trying to get an answer out of Aura about how she ended up like this.

On their way back, Aura was thinking of a good lie to tell Masuyo. This is the lie: Aura was from one of the Fire Nation colonies, (which would explain her looks) and that her mother was Fire Nation and her father was Earth Kingdom, (which would make her seem more trustable). Her parents thought that the Fire Nation's ways were wrong, so they decided to cross over to the Earth Kingdom but they got killed on an accident (which would explain why she's alone). Aura didn't have enough time to think of the kind 'accident' her parents were apparently in, but hopefully Masuyo won't push too hard.

Masuyo kept on asking and asking, but Aura didn't give in, since telling her right away would seem too suspicious.

Finally Aura gave a fake exasperated sigh and told her the lie. "My mother was a Fire Nation Citizen and my father was a Earth Kingdom citizen." Aura carefully schooled her features to look sad. "When they were young they fell in love and got married. After that they had me." Aura put on a smile, to make herself look like she was very find of the memory. "Then after a couple years, my parents thought that, what the Fire Nation was doing is wrong, so they decided to move to the Earth Kingdom. In the Earth Kingdom, they ended up in a terrible accident." Aura made a sobbing sound, to seem like she was about to cry.

"Oh, I'm very sorry about your parents, dear." Masuyo looked down at her with sympathy shown in her eyes and for the first time, her grumpiness was gone.

Aura cover her face, when a smile crept up her lips as a success. She uncovered her face and wiped her eyes like she was wiping away tears and sniffed.

Masuyo went over to her and hugged her saying soothing words, as she kept pretending to be sad. _Who knew lying could be this easy?_

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Another week has passed, with Aura helping in Masuyo's farm, but right now they relaxed as the sun slowly set outside of the house, indicating the end of the day. Aura walked over to Masuyo, with a tray of tea. Masuyo was currently sitting on a rocking chair in front of the fire place and reading the monthly letters she'd get from her husband. Masuyo looked up at her with a bright smile on her face as she took a cup of tea, gesturing to Aura to sit down on the chair beside her. Aura obliged as she took her own cup of tea.

"What's got you so exited?" Aura asked, curiosity apparent in her voice.

Masuyo smiled ear to ear, the first big smile Aura has ever seen on her face. "My husband is coming back in 8 days." Tears of joy streamed down her face.

Aura's eyes widened and she put on a big smile. "That's great! You can finally get to see your husband again!" Aura squealed in excitement and hugged the woman in front of her as she hugged back.

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In the morning Aura rose with the sun, as always. This time she had something on her mind that's been bothering since the night Masuyo got the news of her husband.

Ok, Aura knows that she shouldn't be thinking like this, but she can't help it. She is happy for Masuyo, but if her husband comes back, Aura knows that there will be problems. Masuyo's husband is a soldier in the Earth Kingdom army, which means he's seen enough Fire Nation soldiers to recognize one and he probably figured out that he shouldn't trust any of them. Anyone can guess what that's going to lead to.

So, during breakfast, when Masuyo was moodily (though not as moody as before) handing out the food, Aura told her her concern. (Take out the part about her husband probably not liking her.)

To which Masuyo replied, "Oh nonsense! You don't have to leave just because my husband's coming back." With her moody attitude pushed aside and after a thought, she added. "He wouldn't mind having you around." Though she didn't sound too sure about that.

To which Aura shook her head. "No, it's fine. I've bothered you enough. It's time for me to leave anyway."

"Please stay. I've enjoyed having you around. There's no need to leave. You can make this your home. I could get you a proper room in the house." Masuyo begged.

"I am very grateful for your offer, but I should really leave."

"At least stay for a couple more days."

Aura considered that offer, and finally nodded her head, agreeing to stay a little bit longer.

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Aura stayed at the farm for three more days before leaving. Well, she was about to leave, but Masuyo stopped her . . . again and handed her a bag full of food, clothes and a little money.

"These are for you. Hopefully it'll help you in your travels." Masuyo said, teary-eyed.

Aura gratefully accepted it, since she didn't have anything and smiled. "Thank you so much . . . for everything."

They hugged, tightly. Aura could feel Masuyo's tears seep into her shirt-sleeve.

"Goodbye." Masuyo croaked out.

Aura put the bag around her shoulder and walked away as she waved at Masuyo, who was crying, quietly. After Masuyo couldn't see her anymore, she walked back into her house, still crying.

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**A/N:** _Thank you my dear readers for reading this chapter! I really appreciate it! to sum this up, this chapter, Farms is about Aura staying with Masuyo. There will be a couple more chapters like this and the last one where Aura stays with somebody. After that she can finally meet the gaang. This part is really crucial for her character and it really explains what she is going through. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it!_

_And, Thank you **TotallyCray-Cray,** **Digi-fanCatt**, **EsMelissa** and **Guest** for reviewing._

_To answer **TotallyCray-Cray**'s question-ish, one of the sentences above should explain it._

_To also answer** Digi-fanCatt**'s question, no the restaurant is not destroyed and no Aura doesn't get her stuff as you've guessed already._

_**EsMellissa**, thanks! :D_

_And lastly, Guest, chapter 19-but-not is here. ;)_

_PS, Reviews are welcome! Anything from questions to concerns to suggestions are welcome. See you next time! 3_


	20. Trouble

**A New Life **

**Chapter 19:**

**Trouble**

"Ming! Catch!" Tashi yelled as another boulder hurtled toward her. She thrust her hands froward and threw the pouch to Aura, who caught it and ran towards an alleyway. Maybe she could get them lost in the maze of houses.

Aura dodged the boulders those thugs were throwing at her. She ran as fast as she could while dodging the rocks. All of a sudden a skinny looking earthbender popped out of the ground right in front of her. She stumbled back and barely dodged the boulder. She darted to the opposite side, only to be stopped by another group of earthbenders. "Shit!" Aura swore under her breath as she frantically looked around to find a possible escape route.

"Well, well, well, looks like the little girl is stuck." The big muscular man with tattoos smiled smugly at her as he sauntered over to her while dragging his hammer with him.

_Uh Oh! I'm dead. Where's Tashi when I need her?_

He raised his hammer and was about to strike-

Pause!

Alright, everybody must be thinking; _What the hell is going on?_ Well, let's rewind to the beginning. After Aura left Masuyo she had to stay on the streets with almost nothing, until she met Tashi. A fellow street kid who's been out there for a long time. They befriended each other and stuck together for more than a month already.

Tashi taught Aura everything she had to know to survive on the streets, which included stealing, but Aura wasn't too proud of that. She didn't have a choice, since they had to do whatever they could to survive, especially if you ran out of your supply or didn't have anything from the beginning. It's not like they ever got caught, until now.

Tashi and Aura were walking down the streets of Ghu Jing looking for something to eat (or steal, whichever came first) for their grumbling stomachs. Living on the streets meant not enough food, which meant that they were hungry all the time. At first the hunger was unbearable since she wasn't used to being hungry for long, but eventually she got used to the feeling which seemed to be part of everybody else's life.

Aura and Tashi had to survive with only a loaf of bread for the past week. They were looking for something else for them to survive with for the rest of the week. Aura spotted a pouch dangling off of a pocket from a middle aged man with elaborate clothing. She elbowed Tashi and nodded toward the man. A small smile seemed to tug across her friend's face. They casually strolled over, closer to the man. Aura carefully and slowly took the pouch out without the man noticing. She quickly tucked the pouch into the pockets of her ragged shirt.

Aura and Tashi giggled when they were far away from the man. "That was classic, Aura!" Tashi brushed her messy bangs away from her face while giggling even more. "How much is that?" She asked.

Aura took out the pouch and started counting the money. "There's ten copper pieces and five silver pieces."

"That'll buy us a lot more food for the week. Maybe we could get something new to wear. I'm getting tired of these dirty clothes." Tashi brushed her clothes off, which made the dust fly around her.

"Let's go look for a store. Maybe we could buy fruits."

"What's with you and fruits anyway?"

"What? I just really like fruits."

"We will need more than fruits, Ming." Tashi jokingly bumped her shoulder against Aura's.

_Ming_. That was her name now, Aura still felt guilty for using Ming's name as her alias, but it was necessary. Aura made a mental note to herself to look for better Earth Kingdom names.

Tashi abruptly stopped, looking at something in front of her. "What is it?" Aura asked her friend as she squinted her eyes to figure out what she was looking at.

"Don't you see it? There's a coin pouch by the wall, right by that corner."

Aura looked at the place Tashi mentioned, and sure enough, a coin pouch was sitting peacefully by the wall, looking almost undisturbed and forgotten.

A small smile tugged at her friend's lips. "Let's get it."

Aura nodded. Why not? That pouch probably belonged to someone who dropped it a long time ago and never found it, nobody will notice. Oh, how wrong she was.

Tashi casually strode over to the pouch. To anyone who didn't know her, she would've look like a normal pedestrian walking down the street, but Aura knew better than to think that.

Aura walked over to Tashi's side as soon as she started toward another direction. "Did you get it?" Aura asked or more like about to ask, because right then a bulky looking man with tattoos stepped in front of them, blocking their path. "What have we got here? Two little girls stealing from the most dangerous gang in the town."

"Just so you know, tough guy. We found this on the ground and nobody was around so we took it." Tashi stood on her tippy-toes and glared at the man, who glared back at her. "So that's basically not stealing."

The man snickered. "You are a brave little girl, but I'm going to ask this nicely. Give me my money."

Aura gulped, she knew exactly what was going to happen. She frantically looked back and forth between her friend and the man.

Tashi glared even harder. If looks could kill, the man would be a pile of ash right now, but unfortunately the world is not that easy. "No." Tashi said forcefully.

"Alright, you asked for it." The man looked pleased as he took out a hammer from his side _(How did I not notice that before?)_ and struck at Tashi, who dodged the hammer, grabbed Aura and ran away from the man.

Aura struggled to keep up with her friend, who was faster than her. Suddenly the ground below them started to rumble and a huge wall erupted in front of them. Tashi simply punched the wall with her earthbending, breaking it down to tiny pieces. They jumped over the rubble.

Aura looked back to find that the whole gang was now following them, which consisted of six people. _Great, as if one wasn't enough._ Aura thought sarcastically.

"Why did you have to do that? You could've just given him the pouch." Aura glowered at Tashi, who dodged a rock that was aimed at the back of her head.

"Those guys are stupid to think that they can just put the money in the middle of the street where anyone can see it and expect that nobody will take it." Tashi reasoned and sharply turned at a corner. "This should get them lost." She quickly ducked behind a bunch of crates along with Aura.

They weren't so lucky, because just after a minute, a pillar shot out of the ground, right in front of them, breaking all the crates and scattering them around the road. Aura and Tashi stared wide eyed at the wreckage and slowly looked past the pillar to find the whole gang threateningly standing around them.

Aura and Tashi looked at each other, made a silent agreement and ran their separate ways. Aura looked back when she was far enough and saw three of the gang members chasing her. One of the gang members, an earthbender, stopped and made a bump in the ground, making her trip and fall on her face.

She started to get up when somebody kicked her back, making her fall back on the ground. She grunted when a hand grabbed at her arms, pinning it behind her back and roughly pulling her up. "You've made us go through enough trouble already. Now, where is the money?"

"Don't have it." Aura smirked at the three men around her and kicked at the one that was right in front of her. She then fought through the other man's grip, who was holding her hand behind her back, and punched him in the face.

The third man was about to punch her when she struck at his arm, which limply hung from his shoulder. The two other men recovered from her attack and lunged at her, one with a dagger and the other with a rock covered fist.

She quickly dodged them and kicked them to the ground just as the third man tried to kick her, but she quickly struck at his weak points, making him fall limply on the ground.

The one with a dagger charged at her, as he slashed through the air. Aura dodged each of his attacks, trying not to get hurt. She finally found an opening and aimed her fingers at the weak points on the man's arm. The dagger fell on the ground just as his arm fell limply beside him. To finish him off, she aimed at his other weak points, making him fall right beside his other friend.

Aura faced the last person, an earthbender, who was standing there with a shocked look on his face. Aura simply smirked and charged at the man, but unfortunately he made a rock wall in front of him, making her stop her assault.

The man dropped the rock wall and quickly punched her with a rock covered fist. She staggered back, away from him and quickly dodged the boulders aimed at her. She closed the distance between the man and herself and struck at his weak points. He fell to the ground with a small yelp.

Aura smiled, her hand-to-hand combat without firebending was improving pretty fast. There was no time to think about that, now she had to go find her friend. And with that thought, she ran back to where she came from.

Tashi was still at the same spot when Aura found her. She was surrounded by more of the gang members. There were more of them than she remembered and unfortunately, all of the gang members were earthbenders.

Tashi was currently trying to hold them off, to no avail. She dodged the attacks and attacked herself, but there were too many of them and Tashi looked tired, she was going to lose soon. Aura went up behind an earthbender and put a few jabs around his body. Soon enough he collapsed on the ground and the other earthbenders turned to her. A rock glove flew towards her and she simply dodged it.

Tashi's eyes lit up when she saw Aura.

"Ming! Catch!" Tashi yelled as another boulder hurtled toward her. She thrust her hands froward and threw the pouch to Aura, who caught it and ran towards an alleyway. Maybe she could get them lost in the maze of houses.

Aura dodged the boulders those thugs were throwing at her. She ran as fast as she could while dodging the rocks. All of a sudden a skinny looking earthbender popped out of the ground right in front of her. She stumbled back and barely dodged the boulder. She darted to the opposite side, only to be stopped by other earthbenders. "Shit!" Aura swore under her breath as she frantically looked around to find a possible escape route.

"Well, well, well, looks like the little girl is stuck." The big muscular man with tattoos smiled smugly at her as he sauntered over to her while dragging his hammer with him.

_Uh Oh! I'm dead. Where's Tashi when I need her?_

He raised his hammer and was about to strike when a hole opened up beneath her feet. Aura tumbled down the hole and fell hard on the dusty ground. Aura looked up to find the earthbenders looking down at her through the hole and soon enough the hole started to close, the darkness devouring her surroundings.

"Ming." A familiar voice called out.

Aura frantically looked around the blinding darkness, but obviously she couldn't see anything.

"Ming, it's me." The familiar voice said, again.

"Tashi?"

"Yup!" Tashi grabbed her hand and led her through the dark tunnel she created. "Let's get back to our place. I don't wanna deal with those stupid guys right now."

Aura snickered, "I told you to just give the money back, then we wouldn't be in this situation."

"It's their fault for leaving their money on the street like that."

"Like I said, you could be just given them the money and we wouldn't have to fight a bunch of egoistical men."

Tashi laughed at that. "I really don't care. And by the way, at least we had somebody to try our new moves on."

Aura cocked her eyebrow, then realized that the motion would be lost to her friend.

"The fighting was actually fun, you know? I like beating people up, especially people like them." Tashi continued.

Aura rolled her eyes, "Riiiiiight, 'cause you were so good at knocking them unconscious. And you know what? You didn't look tired at all! You certainly didn't look like you were going to lose." Aura said sarcastically.

"Don't say that! I can almost imagine you making that face."

Aura really was making that 'face', the one she liked to do when she was mocking Tashi. "What face?" Aura innocently batted her eyelashes.

"Ugh! Stop that! I can imagine what you are doing right now."

"Oh, Really? What am I doing?" Aura asked mockingly.

They continued their argument about the types of faces Aura liked to make, until they finally arrived at their little place. Aura distantly wondered how they got from an argument about the money to an argument about Aura's face.

The place they lived in was an old abandoned wooden house at the edge of town. Well, it wasn't exactly a house, it was definitely too small to be a house, but it served well as the roof over their heads. The house wasn't much, it had a kitchen (which, by the way doesn't function properly) and a living/dining room together. Then there was one other room which served as the tiny bedroom. The house was falling apart, but it still kept them dry when it rained, which they were glad for.

There weren't any furnitures in the house except for a ruined sofa. No bed, no tables, no chairs and nothing else. Tashi and Aura usually slept on the floor with a blanket that came with the bag Masuyo gave to Aura.

"I'm glad we are far away from those guys." Aura sat on the floor with the two stolen money pouches resting on the dusty floor.

"Yeah, me too." Tashi flopped down beside her.

"So you admit that you couldn't fight them off?" A smirk played in Aura's lips.

"I never said that."

Aura raised her eyebrow.

"I could fight them off if you didn't interrupt the battle in the middle of it."

"It's impossible to argue with you." Aura simply rolled her eyes and started counting the money.

"60 gold pieces. No wonder they were so eager to get it back."

"At least we can get more things this time." Tashi grinned with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

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"Ming, I'm going out for awhile. Wanna come along?" Tashi stood over Aura, who was trying to clean the house as much as possible.

"Nah, I'm busy." Aura replied distractedly.

Tashi shrugged and walked out the door just before saying, "I won't take too long. Bye."

"Bye." Aura called out behind her back.

Tashi smiled to herself as soon as she passed through the door. She hated that mess that called itself a house, but it was the only place that served as a good enough home. The happier part of her day would probably be the time when she'd go outside.

Tashi loved how the wind flicked around her messy ponytail as well as the hard ground beneath her feet. She had to admit, she preferred not wearing shoes, and it probably has something to do with her being an earthbender.

Tashi approached a fruit stand and bought two moon peaches, one of Ming's favorite fruit. Then she snuck in two more into her bag and casually walked away. Ming preferred to not steal, but she thought otherwise. Why buy if you could just get something for free? But of course, there is a downside to it, you could get caught and put to jail, but that wasn't a concern for her, she was pretty good at it, so she would never get caught.

Tashi walked around town, just enjoying the long walk when something _interesting_ caught her eye. She backtracked to the bulletin board with wanted posters of criminals in both the Fire Nation (she didn't know why they bothered putting it up) and the Earth Kingdom. Her eyes widened when she recognized the person on one of the _Fire Nation_ poster. Her features contorted in anger at the betrayal and disgust she felt. She snatched the poster from the bulletin board and stuffed it in her pocket.

Tashi walked the rest of the way to _her_ house, her head swirling with angry thoughts of the person on the poster. When she reached the door, she stopped midpoint in opening the door and took deep breaths to calm her nerves, as she neutralized her expression. Putting on a smile, Tashi opened the door and greeted her _'friend'._

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"Seriously, where are you taking me?" Aura walked with a cloth covering her eyes and holding on to Tashi, who was leading her somewhere.

"You'll see, it's a surprise." Tashi replied.

Aura simply sighed, she had a feeling that there is something _wrong_ with her friend. Tashi was acting fine until recently.

Aura could tell that they were walking through a forest, probably out of town, no, _definitely_ out of town. What she could not understand is why. What kind of surprise is Tashi planning?

Aura was taken out of her thoughts when her foot caught onto something and she almost tripped, if it wasn't for Tashi holding onto her.

"Oops, that was a tree branch." Tashi paused. "And you should be more careful."

_Yup, definitely a forest._ "How am I supposed to be careful if I can't see?"

"You've got a point."

Aura rolled her eyes behind the blindfold. Then she heard birds chittering above, which also confirmed her suspicion of this place being a forest, along with the uneven ground below her feet.

After a couple more minutes of walking, Tashi stopped. "I have her." Tashi addressed somebody with a cold voice that seemed devoid of any emotion.

_What is she talking about? Who is she talking to? Definitely not me, she never talks to me like that. _

"Good." A gruff voice called out. A male voice. _Agni, what's going on?_

"Tashi, what's going on?" Aura demanded.

Instantly her blindfold was removed to reveal five Fire Nation soldiers on komodo rhinos. Her eyes widened as she recognized who the people on the komodo rhinos were. The Rough Rhinos, they were an elite group of Fire Nation komodo rhino cavalry who worked on a freelance basis and each members were said to be specialized with a different type of weapon or fighting style. They were the most feared group in all of the Fire Nation and by the looks of it Tashi was going to turn her in on the Fire Nation.

"Tashi, what are you doing? Do you now who they are?" Aura frantically looked at Tashi. "Please tell me this is not what I think it is."

Tashi turned her gaze away from her and shoved her at the leader, Colonel Mongke. Colonel Mongke climbed down from his mount and bound her hands behind her back. Aura didn't even budge as she looked at Tashi who received a chest filled with money, _the bounty._

Hope filled Aura's heart when Tashi took a couple steps toward her. But then, she stopped, looking anywhere but at Aura. "I'm sorry." She said softly, then turned and walked away.

"Tashi! Tashi, wait! Tashi!" Aura yelled after the retreating figure of someone she once called friend. Her shoulders slumped and she was forced to sit on the Komodo rhino with Colonel Mongke at the back, with the chains of the handcuff attached to the saddle.

No, _no. How could she do that to me? I'm her friend. Did I ever do something wrong?_ Aura racked her brain for something Tashi would disapprove of. _Nope, don't think so. But most importantly, how did she find out that I'm Fire Nation? I'm pretty sure I hid my heritage right, except for my golden eyes and pale skin, but that can be explained with my story of me being born in the colonies. How did she find out? How could she betray me?_

The colonel snickered. "I don't know why you're even trusting those Earth Kingdom scums. That was a very stupid move."

Aura glared at him, her anger getting the better of her. "Ha! As if you'd know better."

"What was that?"

"None of your business."

Colonel Mongke punched her in her gut. She doubled over, well as close to doubled over as you can be when you're bound. "Don't ever talk to me like that."

With that last threat, Aura decided to stay quiet for a couple minutes until she couldn't hold it in any longer. "Where are you taking me?" She demanded.

"Why should I tell you?" He grumbled, almost annoyed.

"Because this is my future and I want to know what will happen to me."

The colonel sighed. "You are going to be taken to a colony. There, you are going to be shipped over to the Fire Nation Capital."

Aura cocked her eyebrow. "Shipped over? You make me sound like I'm a thing."

He snorted at her remark. "You are going to be dead anyway, that's close to a thing as you can get."

Dread filled her heart but she didn't let it show and instead put in a brave front, which meant glare until he melts into a smoking pile of ash. Unfortunately that's not going to happen, although she wished she could do that.

For the next hour or so Aura focused on trying to loosen the handcuff's grip or at least break it from the little loop it was attached to. Which proved to be hard, especially if the Rough Rhinos kept a lookout on her every second.

She then gave up on trying to break it free and instead focused her attention on just having a 'friendly' conversation with the Rough Rhinos. "So, when are we going to stop?"

"What makes you think we are stopping." The explosives expert said. What's his name? Ya-Lu? Yeh-Lu? Don't remember, she did recall him having a 'Lu' somewhere in his name.

"Oh, I don't know." Aura said sarcastically. "Maybe, I thought that you would like to to eat. 'Cause if you haven't noticed yet, it's a little past lunch time and I'm starving."

"We don't have time to stop, we must get you to the Fire Nation Capitol." The other weaponry expert said, although she didn't remember which weapon he used or what his name was.

"Wow, that almost sounds robotic." Aura fake gasped. "Now I get it! No wonder you don't want to eat food. You are robots! Machines!"

She looked at the annoyed faces of the group and smiled. "I guess being machines, you don't need food. Actually machines do need to run on something, like fuel. What do you use as your fuel? Definitely not real food by my observation."

She heard Colonel Mongke mutter "Shut Up."

"Oh, what is that? You don't need fuel? I can tell-." Colonel Mongke slapped his hand over her mouth.

"I. Said. Shut. Up." He said in a dangerously quiet voice. Inside her head, Aura panicked, but outside she simply glared daggers at the man. He slowly removed his hand from her mouth. "Shh."

Her stomach grumbled right in time. "I'm hungry. Let's stop and eat."

"You know, she's never going to stop talking. I suggest we do what she said." The archer guy said. All around her murmurs of agreement sounded from a couple of the members. Finally they stopped at a clearing where each member of the Rough Rhinos took out their lunch.

Aura looked at them from her uncomfortable position atop the komodo rhino. "Um, hello? You're forgetting something."

"I think not." Colonel Mongke said.

"Uh, yes. Where's my food? I'm hungry."

"We never said you were going to eat."

Aura gave him a questioning look.

"We only said that _we_ were we're going to stop and eat, not you." The colonel smirked at Aura's disbelieving look.

The men ate in the most mocking way possible. Aura tried to ignore her grumbling stomach and

had to turn away, which pleased the Colonel even more. Her thoughts ran back to Tashi and then to the comforting thoughts of her locket, which was securely around her neck. After a while they finished their food and continued their journey.

Aura kept on talking and talking and talking, annoying the Rough Rhinos, who very much tried to ignore her. At least the talking would distract her from her thoughts of the betrayal and hopefully she will find an opening to free herself soon enough.

It was almost sunset when Colonel Mongke threatened to cut her tongue off that she stopped talking. But that didn't last for long since the next thing they knew, it was night and the Rough Rhinos had to settle in for the day.

"We should be arriving there just before mid-day. Then we can turn her in." The archer guy explained to the leader.

"Of course." Colonel Mongke nodded his approval.

Aura decided to make a remark just then. "Wow, I'm flattered. I never thought I would be as important as to have you travel for a day and a half just to get me."

"Shut up, girl!" The colonel snapped.

The Rough Rhinos ate their dinner after that. One of them shoved a plate with just a loaf of bread at her feet. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at him. "How am I suppose to eat this with my hands tied behind my back?"

He shrugged. "That's for you to figure out." Then he walked over to the fire and sat around it, leaving Aura with a loaf of bread.

She'd rather not try to eat this, she wouldn't want to give them the pleasure of seeing her like that, so she called out, "Hey! I can't eat like this. Can you do something about it?"

The colonel sighed and walked over to her. "You better shut up, girl. Or else you won't see to live through to the Capitol."

Ok, he's not going to kill Aura. Her execution is to be done in the Fire Nation Capital so he doesn't have the authority to just kill her. She simply cocked her eyebrow. "So, can you at least help me eat?"

"You are the most annoying, but brave, almost foolish prisoner I've ever had." The colonel barked out at her.

"Aww, thanks." She said sarcastically. "Are you going to help me or not?"

The colonel sighed. "You are never gonna stop are you?"

Aura shook her head.

He sighed again and picked up the loaf of bread. He was about to put it in her mouth, but she stopped him. "What are you doing?"

"Feeding you."

Aura looked at him like he was crazy. "What makes you think I'm going to be fed? I'm not a baby."

Mongke dropped the loaf on the plate. "What else do you want me to do?"

"Oh, I don't know." Aura rolled her eyes and moved around her arms to emphasize the handcuff.

"You want me to take it off?"

Aura nodded.

"Humph, forget it." He made a dismissive gesture with his hand and went away to his tent. After awhile two of them came to her as her night guards. Aura gave up on trying to bribe them into taking the handcuffs off and instead slept for the night.

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The next morning Aura woke up to find the Rough Rhinos packing up their things to continue their journey to the colony, wherever it is. Then the rest of the day Aura focused on trying to get herself free and to somehow bribe them into taking the handcuff off.

Her first trick was to pretend like she had to pee. Aura told the Rough Rhinos to not look at her while she's doing her business, you know, her being a girl and all, it's a good excuse. When all of them were not looking she tried to run off, but she was stopped by Colonel Mongke, she suspected that he was actually looking at her. How disrespectful, he should have more honor than that. She was then forced to sit on top of the komodo rhino again, with Colonel Mongke.

After a few more failed attempts, it was already mid-day and they were scheduled to arrived soon. Then something strange happened. Something pink seemed to be running through the trees. At first Aura thought that it was an animal, but logic told her that there are no pink animals, at least one thats not that bright.

She spotted a pink blur pass through a tree, this time she could make it out as a human form. The Rough Rhinos seemed to notice it too, so they were more alert. Suddenly a thumping sound followed by a loud 'umph' was heard behind her. Aura turned around to see the explosives expert limply lying on the ground with his komodo rhino running away somewhere else.

All the other Rough Rhinos took out their weapons settling in a threatening pose. "Whoever you are, come out and face us! You coward!" Colonel Mongke shouted at the unknown assailant.

The pink blur could be seen again and it was followed by another loud thump. The other weaponry guy, Ogodei was knocked off his komodo rhino. Aura's eyes widened, whoever this person is, he/she is really good.

"Show yourself, you coward!" Colonel Mongke blasted a fireball at the pink figure when it went past a tree. A muffled human-like noise could be heard from a nearby tree.

Then the pink figure came out from behind the tree. Aura's eyes widened in shock at the familiar form of her best friend.

Ty Lee looked sad as she stared down at the little burned patch of her pink outfit. "You meanie! Why'd you do that for?" She pouted.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Colonel Mongke asked, ignoring Ty Lee's question.

Ty Lee wiped off the pout from her face and replaced it with a bright smile. "Oh, did a forget to introduce myself?" She reached out her hand like she was going to get a handshake. "Hi, my name is Ty Lee. And you have captured my friend." Ty Lee cheerfully waved at Aura, who gave a grateful smile back at her friend.

Ty Lee did a cartwheel and charged at Kahchi, the one that fights with a Guan Dao. He tried to fight back, but Ty Lee was faster so she quickly got a hold of him and blocked all his chi. As Kahchi was falling, Ty Lee grabbed the key for the handcuff without Colonel Mongke and the archer guy, Vachir noticing. She dodged all the flaming arrows and fireballs, doing cartwheels and all her other acrobatic moves. The remaining members of the Rough Rhinos continued attacking her, then when she finally found an opening, she threw the key at Aura, who caught it in between her teeth.

Aura somehow managed to get the key to her hands and opened the handcuffs. She gingerly rubbed at the sore spots on her wrists. Colonel Mongke punched her with a fire enhanced fist, but she managed to dodge it in time. She stood up on the komodo rhino and kicked out a stream of fire at Colonel Mongke, who could only dodge by dropping from his komodo rhino. She childishly stuck out her tongue at Colonel Mongke, who struggled to stand up. Just to be sure, she blasted out a wall of fire at Colonel Mongke, who had enough strength to block it, but soon enough he fell unconscious.

Aura whooped, finally free from these disrespectful men. She caught the reins of the komodo rhino and charged at Vachir, punching out series of powerful fire blasts. Vachir became too focused on dodging her attacks that he didn't notice Ty Lee running at him, and before he knew it, his chi flow was blocked out.

Aura slid down the komodo rhino and ran over to Ty Lee, engulfing each other in a bone crushing hug.

"Oh my gosh! It's so good to see you again!" Ty Lee chirped, the excitement clear in her voice.

"It's good to see you too, Ty Lee." They released each other from the hug and looked at each other with a sparkle in their eyes, while smiling ear to ear.

"Oh, Ty Lee, I'm so glad to see you again. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too." Ty Lee said. "Why did they capture you anyway?" Ty Lee asked as they started walking away from the fallen forms of the Rough Rhinos.

Aura looked off to the side, ashamed of her new status. "Well, I'm kind of a criminal to the Fire Nation."

"Oh, right. I remember seeing your picture on a wanted poster." Ty Lee sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "What did you do to . . . you know?"

If Aura told Ty Lee about the locket, then it would be the same as telling her that she is from another world, so she decided to avoid the question. "I don't think I'm supposed to tell." She said.

"Oh, that's fine." Ty Lee put on another big smile, the one that told you that she had a 'great' idea. "You should come visit the circus. We are going to start another show by nightfall."

Ty Lee grabbed Aura's hand and started to drag her, but Aura fought to stay where she was. Finally she let go and looked at her questioningly. "What's wrong? Don't you wanna come?"

Aura felt really bad about what she was about to say next, she knew that her friend would be heartbroken. "I-I can't. They will have my head when they find out who I am."

Ty Lee's smile fell to be replaced by a slight frown. "Oh, that's fine. I get it."

Aura felt so bad right this moment. The day she actually sees her friend again, she upsets her. Not a good way to start their reunion. "Hey, come on. Don't be sad. At least we're here right now, we could spend some time together." Aura smiled.

Ty Lee beamed, "Yeah, great idea. Let's catch up!"

Aura laughed, so glad that she could see her friend again. The next couple of hours, they spent their time walking through the forest and talking about what they did in the last couple of months. Unfortunately Ty Lee had to leave just after sunset to catch up to her night show at the circus. They did their farewells in the most tearful way possible.

All in all it was a very eventful day.

* * *

**A/N:** _Hi guys! I'm so sorry for the late update. I've been very busy lately. Hopefully this really long chapter is going to make up for it. 5,902 words! New record! And I don't think I'm going to stick to my schedule of updating every week. Let's see what happens._

_Other than that really long apology, I'd like to thank all my readers and reviewers for sticking with me all this time._

_To answer some of the reviews:_

_** :** *Blushes* Thanks!_

_**Digi-fanCatt:** Masuyo might not show up, I don't know, maybe in the end? By the way, thanks for always reviewing!_

_**EsMelissa:** Thanks! And Aura's doing just fine (ish). I think you meant she as in Aura? Sorry if I'm mistaken._

_**NatNicole:** Thank you! Hopefully this chapter satisfies you. ;)_

_I would also like to make a request if you don't mind. No, I'm not forcing you to review my story, although you are welcome to do so. Me and my friends, we've written this crazy, funny and (maybe) boring stories when we had nothing to do in class. No, it's not a fanfiction. It's on Wattpad. It's an original story we made up together and we are really proud of it. It's called '_Tales of the House: Steve's Adventures'.

_The Tales of the House: Steve's Adventures is divided into three seasons. Season one is on my friend's account, coociemonster21. Season two is on my account, Ilma621. Season three is going to be on my other friend's account, Phonix5. Season three is not done yet, but it's going to be up sometime in June._

Here is a summary to Tales of the House: Steve's Adventures:

'The following stories were written when three authors had nothing to do during their classes. So expect some very crazy/and or boring plots because you don't understand it. All characters are based in true people (except for Steve) and their characteristics are inverted. Meaning the characters may not act the way they do in real life. To keep your sanity, please refrain from reading all the stories in one day.

Have fun reading! And as we always say, "Anything is possible in Steve Land, especially if you've got Nobody to watch your back!"'

_Okay, maybe that's not the full summary, but my friend explains the story in the first chapter._

_Anyways, thanks for reading my story! I really appreciate it!_


	21. Author's Note

**A New Life:**

** Author's Note**

Kitty: So . . . Since I'm not supposed to post anything that's not a story, I'm just going to make it like a dialogue.

Aura: Prepare for the news.

Kitty: Shhhhhh! I'm trying to explain something here!

Aura: So?

Kitty: So, you have to be quiet.

Aura: Ok, then.

Kitty: I'm planning on-

*A fireball comes towards Kitty*

Kitty: Hey! What was that for!

Aura: *shrugs*

Kitty: *glares*. . . Anyways, as I was saying. I'm planning on-

Aura: Lalalalalalalala *sings while running around in circles*

Kitty: Why are you acting so OOC today?

Aura: Ohhhhhhh! Using fanfic terms like a boss!

Kitty: *sighs* Why are you acting OOC?

Aura: Because you made me.

Kitty: How can I make you OOC? It's not like . . . Oh. Right, I'm writing you like this for fun.

Aura: Exactly.

Kitty: Anyways, enough with all the rambling! I'm planning on . . . *looks at Aura to make sure she doesn't get interrupted* I'm planning on rewriting this story again. I really don't like the first few chapters, those ones really need to be edited, and the chapters are really short too. I don't like that. At all. I might keep the last few chapters the way it is, but the first ones have to be edited. I'm not sure how long it will take, but I'm guessing it's going to be pretty long. I hope you don't mind that too much. Well, never mind, of course you'll mind. But I'm still editing it.

Aura: Yup, she is.

Kitty: What she said. Well, that's a message from me! Me is Kitty! Kitty is KittyKatly! See you in a while!

PS. Check out my new story, 'Found'.


End file.
